Virat Kohli recorded a second consecutive half-century in the IPL 2024. After a match-winning 77 against Punjab Kings, the 35-year-old RCB star cracked another terrific fifty, this time against familiar foes KKR at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium.
Right at the start of his innings, Virat Kohli set the tempo and declared who’s the boss when he flicked Mitchell Starc, the most expensive ever player in IPL history, for a sensational six on the legside.
Generally, we have seen Kohli flicking balls off his pads for fours from the wide long-on region to square leg. However, this time, he went aerial, and his powerful wrists came to the fore as the ball sailed over deep square leg fence, causing an eruption among the crowd at the Chinnaswamy stadium.
Starc made things easier for Virat Kohli too by slowing down the pace and bowling an off-cutter. Kohli picked up the variation delivery that was full in length and on the leg stump in line. With a whip of his powerful, majestic wrists, the ball went over the square leg boundary for a maximum. There was little follow-through of Kolhi’s bat.
Watch: Virat Kohli dispatched Mitchell Starc with a powerful flick shot
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Virat Kohli brought up his half-century in 36 balls.
KKR captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl first. RCB lost their captain, Faf du Plessis, for only 8 runs but then Kohli and Cameron Green formed a solid partnership of 65 (42) before Green was bowled by Russell. Kohli and Maxwell’s partnership was worth 42 (31) before Maxwell was dismissed by Narine.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Philip Salt(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Cameron Green, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Anuj Rawat(w), Dinesh Karthik, Alzarri Joseph, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal