RCB star batsman and opener Virat Kohli played an uncharacteristic knock against the Lucknow Super Giants on Monday scoring 31 runs off 30 balls and stroking only 3 fours in his knock before being smartly deceived and dismissed by Ravi Bishnoi.
Yes, though the pitch at Ekana stadium in Lucknow was characteristically slow and low – it stayed even lower than the one used against Gujarat Titans earlier – this was an unusually slow and scratchy innings from Kohli as he trudged along at a strike rate of 103 with a couple of chances given to him by some luck early in his knock.
RCB opener Virat and Faf du Plessis had done well to reach 42/0 at the end of the powerplay, despite neither going hard. After that it was a slowdown as Bishnoi came on and RCB managed only 20 runs in next three overs including losing Virat to a brilliant strategy from Bishnoi.
Bishnoi had bowled some really faster deliveries to Kohli and Faf in his first 11 balls. However, on the last ball of his second over, the 9th of RCB’s innings, after bowling three consecutive balls that clocked 100 KPH or over, Bishnoi slowed it down – by his standards – to 95 KPH after seeing Kohli jump out of his crease with intent.
Bishnoi bowled it wide off off-stump and it remained away from Kohli’s reach, the googly sneaking under his bat – again the low nature of the surface coming to the bowler’s aid. Nicholas Pooran was quick in whipping the bails off and Kohli was stumped, standing, lonely, just outside the batting crease.
Watch: Virat Kohli’s dismissal of a smart plan from Ravi Bishnoi
๐๐๐ข๐๐ก๐ฎ ๐๐ง๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ค๐ช๐๐ ๐ฅ
๐น how Ravi Bishnoi outfoxes Virat Kohli with a googly! ๐ฅต#LSGvRCB #TATAIPL #IPLonJioCinema #IPL2023 | @LucknowIPL pic.twitter.com/G3qNqGqoYz
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) May 1, 2023
Earlier, Faf du Plessis had won the toss and elected to bat first.
Teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik(w), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, Karn Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): KL Rahul(c), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Nicholas Pooran(w), Krishnappa Gowtham, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Amit Mishra, Yash Thakur
