Kohli made 35th half century yesterday IPL match
April 6, 2019, Kolkata, Bangalore
Match 17 : Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
RCB lost their second home ground match to KKR on Friday. RCB bat first and give the target of 205/3 to KKR at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. This was RCB’s 4th consecutive match which they lost, the pressure was on skipper Virat Kohli to deliver the goods and change the fortunes of his side.
Kohli’s 84 runs in yesterday’s match made 35th of half century in IPL. As a result, he not only became the leading run scorer in IPL history and a second Indian to made 8000 in T20 runs and joined Suresh Raina. Russell’s 13-ball 48 runs vs Kohli’s RCB had a strike rate of 369.23 2nd highest batting strike-rate in an IPL innings. Following the carnage from Kohli and de Villiers, the stage was set for ‘finisher’ Marcus Stoinis. The Australian didn’t disappoint. At one stage, it looked like RCB would fall short of the 200-run mark but the right- hander added 3 boundaries off Krishna to take the team score to 205 for 3. He was cheeky and innovative, including a helicopter-like whip down to long off, to remain unbeaten on 23.
Russell show was expected after skipper Karthik’s departure. The equation was 64 off 22 balls, and many expected the all-rounder to fail on account of the law of averages. However, he smoked almost everything to once again star in KKR’s win this season. He smashed Stoinis for back-to-back sixes but the party began in the visitors’ camp in the penultimate over bowled by Tim Southee. The New Zealander bowled just one yorker and offered length-balls to see them disappear from the stadium. Russell blasted 4 sixes and a four to add 29 runs and seal the deal. In the ongoing season, Russell has scores of 49* (off 19 balls vs SRH), 48 (off 17 balls vs KXIP), 62 (off 28 balls vs DC) and 48* (off 13 balls vs RCB).
