By Sports Desk: Virat Kohli’s dream of lifting the IPL title after 18 years finally came true on the ground of Ahmedabad. Chasing 191 runs in the final match played against Punjab Kings on Tuesday, RCB restricted Punjab to 184 runs with brilliant bowling and won the final by just 6 runs. This was the fourth final in IPL history for RCB, which it managed to win for the first time. RCB had also defeated Punjab in Qualifier 1, now they have maintained their dominance in the final as well. RCB, playing first, scored 190 runs for the loss of 9 wickets, thanks to Virat Kohli’s 43 runs. In response, the Punjab team could only score 184 runs.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 190/9 (20 overs)
Phil Salt (16) gave a good start to Bangalore but his wicket fell in the second over. Jamieson got him caught by Shreyas Iyer. Mayank Agarwal hit some good shots as soon as he came and took RCB to 55-1 in the powerplay. But in the seventh over, Yuzvendra Chahal took his wicket on the second ball itself. Mayank scored 24 runs off 18 balls. RCB captain Rajat Patidar took the stage and hit some attractive shots. He was lbw by Jamieson in the 11th over. Patidar scored 26 runs off 16 balls. Virat was standing firm at one end. He hit some good shots and also became the overall highest run scorer against Punjab Kings. He was caught out by Umarzai on his own ball in the 15th over. He scored 43 runs off 35 balls with the help of three fours. Jitesh Sharma scored 24 runs off 10 balls with the help of 2 fours and 2 sixes but he fell prey to Vijay in the 18th over. Romario Shepherd came to the crease and scored 17 runs off 9 balls before getting trapped LBW by Arshdeep. Arshdeep also sent Krunal Pandya back to the pavilion in the same over. Arshdeep dismissed Bhuvi on the last ball and stopped RCB at 190 runs. This was Arshdeep’s third wicket.
Punjab Kings: 184-7 (20 overs)
Punjab Kings got a good start. Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh added 43 runs for the first wicket. Priyansh scored 24 runs off 19 balls and got out on Hazelwood’s ball. Prabhsimran got out after scoring 26 runs off 22 balls with the help of 2 sixes. In this Josh Inglis hit some attractive shots. But Punjab got a big shock when captain Shreyas Iyer got out after scoring 1 run. In the 13th over, Josh also lost hope and was out after scoring 39 runs off 23 balls with the help of four sixes. Nehal Wadehra gave some hope but in the 17th over, Bhuvi took his wicket and gave a big shock to Punjab. Nehal scored 15 runs off 18 balls. Marcos Stoinis was out after scoring 6 runs off 2 balls in the same over of Bhuvi. This was a big shock for Punjab. Shashank held one end and scored 61 runs off 30 balls but he could not make Punjab the champion.
Journey of both the teams
Bengaluru has performed brilliantly this season. Under the captaincy of Rajat Patidar, the team secured the second position in the league stage, although it was behind Punjab on the basis of net run rate. Bengaluru made it to the finals by defeating Punjab by 8 wickets in Qualifier 1, in which their bowlers performed brilliantly. On the other hand, Punjab showed its strength by being on top in the tournament. After losing in Qualifier 1, they defeated Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2 to enter the final.