Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) stand-in skipper, Virat Kohli lit up the Chinnaswamy Stadium with a free-flowing knock of 54 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 36th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. It was Kohli’s 49th fifty in the IPL and fifth in the ongoing season. Kohli was batting on 54 and looked set for his sixth IPL century when Venkatesh Iyer took a stunning catch off Andre Russell’s bowling to end his stay at the crease.

The RCB stand-in skipper made his intentions clear from the word go when he slashed hard to hit Vaibhav Arora for a boundary. Kohli, who continued to lose partners at regular intervals, hit boundaries off Umesh Yadav, Suyash Sharma, and Varun Chakaravarthy to keep the required run rate in check.

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Virat Kohli made an opening partnership of 31 runs with Faf du Plessis, who departed for 17 after smashing a couple of sixes. Shahbaz Ahmed (2) and Glenn Maxwell (5) departed in quick succession to pile the pressure on Kohli. However, the young Mahipal Lomror played a stroke-filled 34-run inning and added 55 runs for the fourth wicket with his senior partner Kohli, before Varun Chakaravarthy outfoxed him.

Here is the video of the catch by Venkatesh Iyer:

 

Earlier, Jason Roy was the highest run-getter for the visitors as he amassed 56 runs as KKR put on a unified batting display against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League match on Wednesday. Roy hit his second fifty in three IPL games, scoring 56 off 29 balls with five sixes and four fours.

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He shared a first-wicket stand of 83 runs with KKR opener N Jagadeesan, who played a knock of 27 off 29 balls. KKR captain Nitish Rana hit a 21-ball 48, Venkatesh Iyer hit a 31-ball 31, Rinku Singh hit a 10-ball 18 not out, and David Weise hit a 12-ball 12 with two sixes near the end of the innings.