RCB’s journey in this year’s competition came to an end with this heartbreaking defeat. Together Mumbai Indians Winning the game of the afternoon, Faf du Plessis and co. An outright win was needed to qualify for the knockouts, but Gill smashed his second consecutive century of the season, dashing the hosts’ hopes of qualifying for the playoffs.
RCB’s defeat also meant that Mumbai became the fourth team to officially qualify for the knockouts.
Will now face defending champions Gujarat Titans Chennai Super Kings In Qualifier 1 on Tuesday, Mumbai will face Lucknow Super Giants Eliminator on Wednesday.
After Kohli’s 61-ball 101 in RCB’s 197 for five, it looked to be his best effort of the day, but Gill, who would be the torchbearer of Indian batting for the next 10 years, showed that he is better than the best. are better
What Kohli did well, Gill did better as his unbeaten ton saw the Titans chase down the target. Like former India captain Kohli, this was Gill’s second consecutive century.
Gill hit eight sixes and five fours.
Titans thus ended the league engagements with 20 points, while CSK finished second behind Lucknow Super Giants with 17 points due to a better net run-rate. Mumbai Indians, after their eight-wicket win against SRH, are back in the last four with 16 points.
With 34 runs needed from three overs, Gill’s short-arm half-jab, half-pull off Mohammed Siraj was the killer blow, and then he hit him for another six to end the contest as Kohli shook his head in disbelief in the dugout. Beaten up
as it happened
RCB’s fate was in their own hands but poor execution while defending a healthy total became their undoing.
Gill was excellent in his touch-play with an extra split second to play his shots against the fast bowlers, while his brilliant footwork against leg-spinner Himanshu Sharma was a connoisseur’s delight.
Michael Bracewell’s pick-up flick behind the off break was easily the shot of the night, followed by a monster hit over long-on.
Gill had an able ally in Vijay Shankar (53 off 35 balls). The duo put on 123 runs for the second wicket as Gujarat Titans didn’t let the intensity drop even for a moment.
The difference between Gill’s match-winning knock and Kohli’s effort was the support at the other end. While Kohli was left to do all the heavy lifting, Gill got the support at the other end.
Also, RCB’s bowling unit had several weak links and Gill cleverly targeted the slower bowlers with leg-spinner Himanshu and off-spinner Bracewell conceding 44 runs in his four overs while the inexperienced Vijaykumar Vaishak’s spell yielded 40 runs.
Earlier, Kohli was the lone ranger as his second successive hundred handed Royal Challengers Bangalore a challenging total after opting to bat first.
With the rain god threatening to spoil RCB’s play-off plans during the day, Kohli brought back his 2016 avatar in a match that started half an hour late. He kept all the aces he had during his innings hitting 13 fours and a six.
His innings was priceless as none of the RCB batsmen could even reach 30 and just like in the good old days, ‘King Kohli’ dictated the story by playing the line, length and mind of the bowlers.
This is his seventh IPL century and he has now surpassed Chris Gayle as the batsman with most hundreds in the tournament.
Given that the Chinnaswamy Stadium is known for batting belters, the final total, though competitive enough, was definitely 10-15 runs below par.
Kohli and skipper Faf du Plessis (28) started brilliantly, hitting a flurry of boundaries against Mohammed Shami (1/39 in 4 overs) and an already flustered Yash Dayal in the powerplay.
He was dispatched for nine boundaries, prompting Hardik Pandya to quickly tap his main weapon Rashid Khan (1/24 in 4 overs) to stem the flow of runs.
After conceding 62 runs in six powerplay overs, Rashid and his ‘left-arm mirror image’ Noor Ahmed (2/39 in 4 overs) put the brakes on the scoring.
Noor dismissed du Plessis while he tried to hit him awkwardly inside. The edge hits the pads of Wriddhiman Saha and catches Rahul Tewatia and completes a simple catch.
Glenn Maxwell started well but Rashid bowled fast and full and dropped back far enough to pierce the batsman’s defense as RCB suddenly found themselves in a rhythm.
It got worse when Noor dragged Mahipal Lomror who turned the other way and Saha completed the leg-side stumping with the finesse that is now associated with him.
Michael Bracewell (26), however, eased some of the pressure on Kohli at the other end with slower deliveries from Mohit Sharma.
In his first three overs, he hit seven fours and it was Shami who did more damage to Bracewell and Dayal finally did something for him when Dinesh Karthik’s poor season took a turn for the worse. But Kohli kept fighting.
(With inputs from PTI)