IPL 9: Virat Kohli, KL Rahul fifties push Bangalore to 185

Virat Kohli and opener K.L. Rahul (52) stitched together 84 runs for the second wicket on Monday. (Photo: Satish B.)

The Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to put up a challenging 185/7 in their Indian Premier League-9 clash against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Monday.

After steady knocks from K.L. Rahul and Virat Kohli, both of whom scored an exact 52, an explosive innings from Shane Watson (34 off 21) and Sachin Baby (16 off 8) helped the Challengers reach a defendable total.

Put into bat, the Challengers did not get an ideal start. The Bengaluru crowd erupted as the flamboyant Chris Gayle walked to the middle along with Rahul to open the innings.

The West Indian sent the crowd into raptures when he slammed a Morne Morkel delivery straight over the bowler for a six. But that was all that the destructive batsman could manage as he was caught on the very next ball to bring his innings to an end.

Gayle’s dismissal though did not hamper RCB’s charge as Rahul along with skipper Kohli anchored the innings.

Karnataka batsman Rahul, playing on his home ground, justified the advantage to bring up his third fifty of the tournament. Rahul gave the home fans a lot to cheer as he brought in his fifty in style, hitting the ball past third man for a boundary.

The duo’s second wicket partnership of 85 runs (58 balls) was brought to an end as Rahul sliced a Piyush Chawla delivery to deep cover, where Yusuf Pathan took an easy catch. This slowed down RCB’s innings as AB de Villiers (4) went cheaply, trapped leg before by Chawla to give KKR a hold the advantage.

Kohli, who was dropped by Gambhir on 50, did not use the life-line as he was dismissed on the very next deliverv off Russell.

Though the home team lost a few wickets, Watson along with Baby played a quickfire knock to help the Challengers reach a strong total.

For the Knights, Chawla and Morkel picked up two wickets each.

Scoreboard Royal Challengers Bangalore: K.L. Rahul c Pathan b Chawla 52, C. Gayle c Uthappa b Morkel 7, V. Kohli c Russell b Morkel 52, AB de Villiers lbw b Chawla 4, S. Watson run out 34, S. Baby c & b Russell 16, S. Binny c Pandey b Yadav 16, V. Aaron (not out) 0. Extras: (w2, nb2) 4. Total: (for 7 wkts, in 20 overs) 185. FoW: 1-8, 2-92, 3-109, 4-129, 5-167, 6-184, 7-185. Bowling: Russell 4-0-24-1 (1w), Morkel 4-0-28-2, Narine 4-0-45-0, Yadav 4-0-56-1 (2nb, 1w), Chawla 4-0-32-2.