Apart from the cricket rivalry, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2024 match in Bengaluru witnessed a very special moment. In the build-up to the match, two men made headlines: Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir. During the IPL 2023, Gambhir, then mentor of Lucknow Super Giants, was involved in a heated argument with RCB’s Virat Kohli after the latter’s altercation with Naveen ul Haq. The image of the argument between the two-star cricketers went viral.
On Friday, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir hugged it out on the field. Gautam Gambhir approached Virat Kohli and shook his hand. They hugged each other. The image of the two embracing went viral.
“Fairplay award to KKR for this hug between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir,” Ravi Shastri said about the incident.
“Not just a fair play award, but also an Oscar award,” said Sunil Gavaskar.
Talking about the match, star batsman Virat Kohli’s skillful unbeaten fifty formed the basis of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s competitive 182 for six against Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL match in Bengaluru on Friday. Kohli (83, 59b, 4×4, 4×6) and Cameron Green (33 off 21b) milked 65 runs from 42 balls for the second wicket, the most important alliance in RCB innings, as the home side produced a two-faced effort after being asked om first turned onto a track that was on the slower side.
An archetypal cameo from Dinesh Karthik (20, 8b, 3×6) added gravitas to the RCB total towards the end as usual.
Captain Faf du Plessis went back early as the Royal Challengers captain’s attempt to pick up pacer Harshit Rana ended in the hands of Mitchell Starc inside the circle.
But a period of stability followed as Kohli and Green kept RCB on track with a busy score, reaching 61 for 1 in the Power Play segment.
Kohli dished out drives and lofts over covers, a new addition to his batting, sweeps and slog sweep to get his runs, but the shot of the night was a whack from Starc that sailed a six.
In fact, no other shot captures Kohli’s batting as well as the swat flick – a child of his desire to find newer ways to maintain bowlers’ dominance.
A simple flick of the wrist and the power of a strong bottom hand can turn this traditionally soft shot into a vicious running option.
Kohli brought up his fifty in 36 balls, while other batters, barring Green, generally struggled with momentum and timing.
But then again, Green wasn’t really concerned with such technical angles as his hitting was all about brute force.
Sunil Narine, playing his 500th T20 match, was dealt a blow when Green took 15 runs off the spinner’s first over, including a sequence of 4, 4, 6 – a sweep, blow past cover and a hoick over long-on .
However, the budding alliance was broken when Green’s attempt to take out Andre Russell saw the ball bounce onto his stumps while the ball stayed a little low.
Glenn Maxwell, who was dropped twice on 11 and 21, en route a 19-ball 28 failed to capitalize on the generosity of KKR fielders as his luck eventually ran out against Narine.
A strike from the West Indian spinner ended at deep point at the hands of Rinku Singh, and Maxwell had to depart after adding 42 runs for the third wicket with Kohli.
Rajat Patidar (3, 4b) seemed to be suffering from a lack of confidence after his trials in the Test series against England, and the right-hander produced another hugely disappointing knock.
But on one hand, Kohli kept going even as the KKR bowlers adopted the pace-off strategy to excellent effect to slow down proceedings.
With PTI inputs
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