It was vintage Virat Kohli on display as he led the Royal Challengers Bangalore side to victory over Punjab Kings. Skipper Faf du Plessis was carrying an injury ahead of the encounter and as a result, the team took a decision to use the Proteas star as the Impact Player. That meant that Kohli came out for the toss as RCB skipper once again and his trademark aggressive attitude was on display during the PBKS innings as he constantly motivated the side and his celebration following a brilliant piece of fielding from Mohammed Siraj to dismiss Harpreet Bhatia has won the internet.
Prabhsimran Singh played the ball straight to Siraj at mid-on and the pacer made no mistake in pulling off the direct hit. The dismissal sparked massive celebrations in the RCB team with Kohli congratulating his players and Siraj pulling out a celebration made famous by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Siraj's four-wicket haul powered Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to a 24-run win against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium on Thursday. Superb bowling helped RCB bundle out Punjab Kings for 150 in 18.2 overs to register a fine win in Mohali.
For RCB, Siraj bagged a four-wicket haul and Wanindu Hasaranga claimed two while Harshal Patel and Wayne Parnell scalped one wicket each. For PBKS Prabhsimran Singh scored the highest with 46 off 30 while Jitesh Sharma scored 41 in 27 deliveries.
Earlier, the 137-run opening stand between Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis powered RCB to a decent score of 174/4 against PBKS.
RCB got off to a great start, racking up 137 runs without losing any wickets. However, after the 17th over, they lost two big wickets -- of Virat and the dasher Glenn Maxwell -- in quick succession. RCB lost momentum thereafter and wasn't able to lift the scoring rate in the tail-end of their innings.
For Punjab Kings, left-armer Harpreet Singh was the pick of the bowlers, snapping up two wickets for 31 runs while pacers Arshdeep Singh and Nathan Ellis took one apiece. However, Sam Curran and Rahul Chahal brought Punjab back into the game, bowling tight lines and lengths and not giving easy runs to RCB.
(With PTI inputs)