IPL 9, Match 50: RCB v KXIP – 5 Talking Points

Royal Challengers Bangalore annihilated their opposition Kings XI Punjab by 82 runs at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium to register their third successive win in the IPL. Batting first, RCB put up a humongous total 211/3 in 15 overs with yet another powerhouse performances from the captain marvelous Virat Kohli, who led from the front, smashing his fourth IPL ton. Chris Gayle (73 from 32 balls) played a sparkling knock.  In reply, the target was too daunting for the Kings XI Punjab Side, who despite all their efforts, could manage only 120/9 in 14 overs before the umpires brought the game to halt and declared RCB as the winner by D/L method.

1.Rain scare:

Dark clouds looming over the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru just hours before the start of the looked like a bad omen for the RCB side. Soon, rains began to pour persistently and filled the ground with water just before the toss time. The Virat Kohli-led, who were in a do-or-die situation, would have found themselves in a very tricky situation if the game was forced to be abandoned they could have been virtually got knocked out of the tournament. But, luckily, the rains stopped after causing a 2 hours delay and made the match possible. The coin was finally tossed at 9.30 pm and the game commenced at 9.47 pm.

2. Virat ‘Bradman’ Kohli crushes KXIP:

Virat Kohli continued his Bradmanesque form and hammered his 4th IPL ton this season. Coming out to open the innings in the 15 overs a side game, Kohli went on to bat till the penultimate over of the match and amassed 113 runs off just 49 balls with the help of 8 sixes and 12 fours. He was simply magical tonight. Batting with 8 stitches in his hand, Kohli looked completely invincible and went after the bowlers right from the start of innings. He reached his fifty in just 28 balls and later jetted off to his century in just 47 balls before getting out off the last ball of the 14th over.

3. Chris Gayle does the champion dance:

While Virat Kohli took over the scenes at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium, Chris Gayle also played a fiery knock. After struggling badly for most part of the season, the Jamaican giant announced his return to form in the last game with his fine 49 runs knock. He looked in his natural groove today as well as he cracked 73 runs off just 32 balls put up a blazing 147 runs stand in just 11 overs for the first wicket with Kings Kohli. His knock included 4 boundaries and 6 spectacular sixes.

4. Unreal bowling figures:

Kings XI Punjab perhaps had their worst day in the field today. The Kohli- Gayle pair completely murdered the KXIP bowlers and made them look like complete rookies. Opening bowlers Mohit Sharma and Sandeep Sharma, KXIP’s most successful bowlers gave away 33 runs and 29 runs in their 3 overs spell while taking one wicket each. The number becomes worse in the case of the remaining three bowlers used by Murali Vijay – Kyle Abbott, KC Cariappa and Axar Patel. Abbott and Axar ended up with awful figures of 1/48 and 1/16 in their three overs spells while KC Cariappa ended up with highly demoralising figures of 0/55 in his 3 overs.

5. Kings XI Punjab inflicts a heavy loss:

KXIP were completely matchless with the bat too. Initially, openers Vijay and Hashim Amla began with a couple of cracking boundaries but the RCB bowlers pulled back immediately and began to snap wickets. The first to go was the skipper Vijay in the 2nd over. The 4th, 5th, and the 6th over saw three more wickets fall (Wriddhiman Saha, Hashim Amla, and David Miller). Gurkeerat Singh and Axar Patel stood there in the middle for a while before departing. The already sky-high required run rate had reached the outer space by the end of the 10th over (24.40 to be precise). Eventually, KXIP could manage only 120/ 9 in 14 overs before the game was brought to an end by the umpires. RCB were handed a win 82 runs via DLS method.