AB de Villiers, Kohli tons set up record IPL win

AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli added 229 for the second wicket in just 96 balls.

Bangalore: AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, bowlers help Royal Challengers Bangalore rout Gujarat Lions by 144 runs, they have registered one of their biggest wins in IPL history.

Chris Jordan (4-11) shines with the ball. But the day belonged to AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli, who put on 229 off 96 deliveries for the third wicket, which rocketed RCB’s score to 248 for 3 in their 20 overs.

With this win RCB move to 10 points from 11 matches and are currently placed in the sixth position. They still have an outside chance to make it to the playoffs. GL on the other hand are still in the second place with 14 points in 12 matches

GL too are more or less into the playoff stage, but will feel comfortable if they managed to win at least one more from their remaining two fixtures. RCB’s net run rate has taken a significant boost courtesy of this big win and it could tuen out to be crucial in the end when things get a little tight.

Yuzvendra Chahal too did an excellent job, finishing with figures of 3 for 19 in his four overs. All the bowlers came together and delivered a thorough performance. This is the kind of performance they will have to deliver for the remaining matches.

Earlier, it was the same old story for RCB as they lost Chris Gayle for yet another single-digit score.

After that it was the de Villiers-Kohli show as they showed no mercy on any bowler and dispatched the ball to all parts of the ground with ease. Although Kohli started off cautiously, de Villiers immediately started going as his first four scoring shots were 6, 4, 6, 4.

De Villiers got to his century off just 43 deliveries and Kohli too was in the mood to get one as well. He scored 30 runs of the penultimate over, which was bowled by Shivil Kaushik and was therefore just five runs away from getting his third ton from there. Kohli got to a ton with a huge six off the final over, and therefore, became the first one to score three IPL centuries in a single IPL season.

Brief Scores:
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 248 for 3 (Kohli 109, de Villiers 129*, Praveen 2-45)
Gujarat Lions - 104 (Finch 37, Jordan 4-11, Chahal 3-19)
Result - Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 144 runs