On Monday, March 25th, Royal Challengers Bangalore secured their inaugural victory of the Indian Premier League season. RCB won the match against Punjab Kings by 4 wickets in a thrilling final-over encounter at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The star batter of the team, Virat Kohli played a pivotal role in RCB’s triumph with an impressive innings of 77 runs. Notably, Kohli was given a reprieve in the opening over of the match when Jonny Bairstow dropped him while he did not open his account.
Punjab Kings captain Shikhar Dhawan believed that Virat Kohli’s dropped catch was a pivotal moment in the match, and the outcome could have been significantly different if Kohli had been dismissed at the beginning of the RCB innings.
After being dropped on the second ball of the first over, Kohli struck four boundaries against Sam Curran. From that point onward, he methodically constructed his innings, despite receiving little assistance from the other end.
“It was a good game, we brought the game back, and again we lost it. We scored 10-15 runs less, in the first six overs I played slow. Those 10-15 runs cost us and the dropped catch as well,” Punjab Kings captain Shikhar Dhawan said after the match.
“Virat scored 70-odd runs and we dropped a catch of the class player, we paid the price. If we had taken that catch …. we lost the momentum and then we paid the price for that,” Dhawan further added.
