Gujarat Titans, who defeated Chennai in the first match of IPL 2023, defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets in the last league match. Batting first, RCB scored 197 runs losing five wickets. In response, Gujarat scored 198 runs in 19.1 overs losing four wickets and won the match. Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 101 for Bangalore. At the same time, Shubman Gill scored an unbeaten 104 for Gujarat.
It's over Now Lucknow will face Mumbai in the Eliminator match. At the same time, Gujarat will face Chennai in the first qualifier. RCB had to win this match at any cost to reach the fourth place in the playoffs, but Kohli's team could not do so and were out of the playoffs.
The start of the match delayed due to rain,
the toss was delayed by 45 minutes due to rain. While the match started 55 minutes late from its scheduled time of 7:30 pm, not a single over was reduced in the match. Gujarat captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and decided to bowl first. Kohli and Duplessis started off cautiously as the pitch helped the fast bowlers due to rain and both scored 10 runs in two overs. Du Plessis targeted Shami in the third over and accelerated the run rate by hitting four fours in his over. 16 runs came in his over. Then in the next over, Kohli opened his hands by hitting fours in the leg side in the first three balls of Yash. Du Plessis then hit the last ball of the over for a four. Although Rashid Khan gave 10 runs in the fifth over and Noor Ahmed gave 9 runs in the sixth over. Both scored 62 runs in the first six overs of the powerplay.
RCB's banging start -
RCB got off to bat first after losing the toss and got off to a great start. Virat Kohli and Faf Duplessis, who are in excellent form, started scoring runs at a good pace from the very first over. Together they scored 62 runs in the Powerplay. After this, Duplessis became the victim of Noor Ahmed by scoring 28 runs, but Kohli stood firm. After Plessis, Maxwell was also dismissed by Rashid Khan after scoring 11 runs in just five balls. Lomror walked after scoring one run and RCB's score was 85/3. After this, Michael Bracewell shared a 47-run partnership with Kohli and brought his team back in the match. During this, Kohli also completed his half-century.
Mohammed Shami dismissed Bracewell on a personal score of 26 runs. After this Dinesh Karthik got out on the very first ball. In the end, Virat Kohli shared an unbeaten 64-run partnership with Anuj Rawat to take RCB's score to 197 for five. Anuj scored an unbeaten 23 in 15 balls. Noor Ahmed took two wickets for Gujarat. Mohammed Shami, Yash Dayal and Rashid Khan got one wicket each.
Kohli scored seventh century in IPL -
Virat Kohli batted brilliantly in this match and played an unbeaten inning of 101 runs in 61 balls. He hit 13 fours and a six. This was Virat's seventh century in IPL. Along with this, he left behind Chris Gayle in terms of scoring the most centuries in IPL. Virat scored a century in the second consecutive innings and became the third batsman to do so. Shikhar Dhawan in 2020 and Jos Buttler in 2022 have done this before him.
Bad start for Gujarat -
Chasing the target of 198 runs, the start of Gujarat was nothing special. Wriddhiman Saha got out after scoring 12 runs in 14 balls. After this, Vijay Shankar along with Gill handled Gujarat's innings and the team managed to score 51 runs in the powerplay. A 123-run partnership for the second wicket between Vijay Shankar and Shubman Gill brought the Gujarat team back into the match. Vijay Shankar got out after scoring 53 runs in 35 balls. After this Dasun Shanaka also returned to the pavilion without opening the account. David Miller could also score only four runs.
Gujarat had lost three wickets for 23 runs and it seemed that this team might lose the match, but Gill had other plans. He stuck to one end and kept scoring runs at a rapid pace. He completed his century with a six off the first ball of the 20th over and gave the team victory. Gill scored an unbeaten 104 off 52 balls with the help of five fours and eight sixes. Mohammad Siraj took two wickets for RCB. Vijaykumar and Harshal got one wicket each.
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