King Kohli masterclass secures back-to-back IPL titles for RCB

Virat Kohli (PC: IPL/BCCI)

There are pretenders, there’s a nouveau star, and then there’s the master. No disrespect to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi – the Orange Cap is richly deserved. He is undoubtedly a star for the future. For the moment, though, the stage still belongs to Virat Kohli.

On a tricky Ahmedabad pitch, his masterclass in the final against Gujarat Titans (GT) secured a second successive IPL title for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Rajat Patidar, as captain, is now in elite company, rubbing shoulders with MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. He owes Kohli a thank you.

After restricting GT to 155, RCB looked to be running away with the game through a 62-run opening partnership between Kohli and Venkatesh Iyer in just 4.3 overs. Then the wickets began to fall. A double-wicket over from Rashid Khan made things edgy for RCB. But Kohli was still there, and as long as he remained at the crease, his team appeared destined to win. Class never dies.

RCB won by five wickets with 12 balls to spare. Kohli was limping, but he was not going anywhere. A lofted drive over deep mid-wicket off Kagiso Rabada was pure magic. His unbeaten innings of 75 from 42 balls was unadulterated class.

Rain and ruin for GT?

It rained heavily in Ahmedabad on the eve of the final. The pitch was well protected, but having remained under covers for a long period, it became slightly damp. RCB won the toss and gained the advantage of bowling first on a surface that played sluggishly in the first innings. The ball was not coming on to the bat, and several GT batters fell prey to mistimed shots.

The man with the golden arm

Bhuvneshwar Kumar started with a jaffa to Shubman Gill. The GT skipper’s riposte was a gorgeous cover drive on the up. But the veteran seamer kept teasing him. Gill then decided to take the attack to Josh Hazlewood. He charged down the track and dispatched the fast bowler over the deep mid-wicket boundary, only for Hazlewood to strike with the very next ball. Gill attempted a short-arm pull, but the delivery arrived later than expected and took the leading edge.

Yet the story was Bhuvneshwar. After building pressure on Gill, he outsmarted Sai Sudharsan with a bouncer and forced GT into a sedate start. Bhuvneshwar finished with 28 wickets from 16 innings at an average of 17.89. He truly is the man with the golden arm.

Rasikh ko salaam

What a value addition Rasikh Salam has proved to be for RCB this season. The youngster from Jammu and Kashmir has been brilliantly consistent, and a tally of 19 wickets from 12 matches is testament to that. More than the raw numbers, however, Rasikh has delivered under pressure, and the final was his crowning glory.

He strangulated GT’s middle order and returned figures of 3/27 from his four overs. Krunal Pandya also played his part, removing Jos Buttler and maintaining an economy rate of under six runs per over. This RCB side is indeed a celebration of the collective.

Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bengaluru 161/5 (Kohli 75*; Rashid 2-25) beat Gujarat Titans 155/8 (Washington 50; Rasikh 3-27, Bhuvneshwar 2-29) by five wickets.

For latest sports updates: Follow RevSportz

The post King Kohli masterclass secures back-to-back IPL titles for RCB appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Consistent Nicholas Pooran can be world’s top T20 batter

Image
Nicholas Pooran’s carnage against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Image: IPL He has always had a calmness about him. A very West Indian relaxed kind of mindset and demeanour. And having seen adversity, he knows that one needs to celebrate and value the good that comes your way. The urge to keep getting better, and be the best version of oneself, is what defines the new Nicholas Pooran. That’s what came through in the candid conversations we had on the IPL and his own approach to batting. Not overawed by the 21-crore price tag or the weight of expectations, Pooran is simply going about his job. He knows he can hit the ball miles and is keeping it simple. Go and do what you do best for hours and hours at practice, and in doing so, help your team Lucknow Super Giants] demolish opponents. “The best part about this franchise is they have never put me under pressure,” he told me. “When you are paid a lot of money, there is always pressure. Not so much from outside but from within. You know you ne...
Read more

Turning the clock back by 0.12 seconds

Image
MS Dhoni with a stumping dismissal against MI in the IPL 2025 in Chennai (PC: BCCI) The moment of the Chennai Super Kings-Mumbai Indians match lasted less than half a second. It was the 11 th over of the MI innings. Suryakumar Yadav was bringing the batting side back in the game. Noor Ahmad beat him on a forward charge, the ball spun away, and the right-hander’s hind leg got off the ground before he planted it back. That was all MS Dhoni needed to brush the bails off. At a packed MA Chidambaram Stadium decked in yellow and chanting his name, that was the only occasion when Dhoni was in ‘action’. It showed that at 43, his reflexes have not slackened and he has got sharper in plotting dismissals. This one was replayed on TV again and again during the match and commentators couldn’t help but keep talking about it. He had conceded four byes on the leg side in the same over. But this was the Dhoni who elevated stumping to another level. When it comes to waiting for batters to err wit...
Read more

From scoring ton in Patna to taking on bouncers like a ‘bullet’ in Perth – Nitish’s story of perseverance

Image
Nitish Kumar Reddy during the 1st innings of the Perth Test (PC: Debasis Sen) “Grateful, an innings to remember.” Nitish Reddy had posted the aforesaid statement on his Instagram account after cracking his maiden first-class hundred, against Bihar, in Patna. It wasn’t just about Nitish scoring an unbeaten 159 for Andhra. It was also about the way he scored those runs. He essayed a few crunchy drives off Veer Pratap Singh and also showcased his range of shots against Ashutosh Aman, the left-arm spinner, by playing with the turn and also against the turn. This hundred from Nitish came just before the 2024 IPL season, where he accumulated 303 runs. Once again, it wasn’t just about Nitish accruing 303 runs as he accumulated them with a touch of class. Soon, the Indian think-tank drafted the all-rounder into the limited-overs set-up. Although he missed the Zimbabwe series because of a hernia problem, it was crystal clear that the coaching staff had a vision – to pick him for the tour o...
Read more