Dinesh Karthik and Mahipal Lomror played a blinder in the end to see Royal Challengers Bengaluru home in a tense tie against touring Punjab Kings by five wickets on Monday (March 25) in IPL 2024. Virat Kohli returned to form at the top, completing his 51st IPL fifty, scoring 77 off 49 balls. While bowling, Yash Dayal was in superb touch, conceding just 23 runs for one wicket in four overs, while Mohammed Siraj and Glenn Maxwell picked two wickets each.

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Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to field first in Bengaluru. Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow struck a few fours upfront before Siraj removed the Englishman caught off a bouncer on eight. Prabhsimran Singh smashed a few sixes but got out to Maxwell while trying to pull one. 

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Liam Livingstone scored 17, while Sam Curran contributed with 23 runs, but none could get going. Following their departures and that of Dhawan, who scored 45 off 37 balls, Shashank Singh and Jitesh Sharma ensured Punjab went past 170 (176 for six in 20 overs).

Welcome back Virat

After failing to deliver on his return match against CSK, Virat Kohli hit a brilliant fifty in his second outing this season. After getting dropped in the slips on zero, Virat made the most of his chance and smashed boundaries at will. 

Rajat Patidar tried building a stand with the former skipper, but Harpreet Brar had other plans. The left-arm spinner bowled a stunning spell of two for 13 in four overs, and removed Rajat and Maxwell.

Anuj Rawat and Virat fell in the space of three balls, leaving the lower order to get the job done.

Karthik, who remained unbeaten in the previous game, used his experience to deliver at the death, while the impact player Mahipal Lomror hit a six and two fours to help the cause.

The seasoned campaigner DK smashed a six and four off Arshdeep’s last over to win the game for his team. With this win, the RCB opened its account in IPL 2024.

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