Virat Kohli played his 100th T20 match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday as Royal Challengers Bengaluru took on Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL 2024 match. The Indian cricket team’s star batsman became the first Indian player in history to play 100 T20 matches at a single venue. The second place goes to Rohit Sharma, who has played 80 matches at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. MS Dhoni is third with 69 matches at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Indian players will play most of their T20s at one venue:
100 – Virat Kohli at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
80 – Rohit Sharma at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
69 – MS Dhoni at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Quinton de Kock manifested his exceptional batting skills with a fifty but Lucknow Super Giants could not get past a par 181 for five against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their IPL match.
De Kock (81 off 55) selected the bowlers and positions around the ground to play his shots with precision, but the RCB bowlers did not allow other batsmen, except Nicholas Pooran (40 off 21), a free run on a pitch with a generous touch of green.
The Super Giants got off the blocks quite quickly, reaching 32 for no loss in three overs and then making it 54 in the Power Play.
Most runs came from De Kock, who especially had a preference for pacer Mohammed Siraj.
The South African southpaw hit him three sixes – two in succession – across two overs – two powerful pulls and a nice loft over mid-wicket.
KL Rahul, who captained the side after coming in as an impact sub against Punjab Kings in the previous match, slowly started making six runs off his first ten balls.
But a six after left-arm pacer Yash Dayal, a well-timed strike straight over the bowler’s head, gave his innings some momentum and later he swept spinner Glenn Maxwell for a six, and he was a tad lucky because Rajat Patidar did that couldn’t make his jump properly near the rope and collect the ball.
However, Rahul perished in the next ball, an attempt to pull Maxwell’s long delivery and it landed in the palms of Mayank Dagar in the circle.
Devdutt Padikkal struggled mightily during his 11-ball six, and he was eventually put out of his misery by Siraj after the southpaw’s pull was smothered by stumper Anuj Rawat, who ran back a few yards to catch the ball.
The second substantial innings in LSG innings followed Padikkal’s departure as De Kock and Marcus Stoinis (24, 15b) added 56 runs off 30 balls for the third wicket.
De Kock, who brought up his fifty in 36 balls, kept his target going during this alliance as Stoinis hit a six each off Maxwell and Cameron Green.
But the blossoming partnership ended when Stoinis’ half-hearted swat was punched in the pocket by Dagar at one point.
The LSG at that stage were 143 for four in 16.3 overs and needed a few more runs to reach safer shores.
Pooran, who smashed left-arm seamer Topley for three sixes in a row in the 19th over and two more maximums in the final off Siraj, delivered the final attack but LSG might have wanted a higher total.
(With PTI inputs)
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