Ahmedabad: It was a night dotted with chilling certainty. Royal Challengers Bengaluru translated their domination from Day 1 of this IPL into a second successive title, and Virat Kohli anchored that five-wicket romp over the Gujarat Titans with a patented chase masterclass of an unbeaten 75 here on Sunday.
If the Titans’ innings of 155 for eight was filled with trepidation, Royal Challengers’ 161 for five in 18 overs was full of intent and confidence.
And those words are forever entwined with Kohli’s batting, and the latest evidence was his 42-ball unbeaten innings.
As he has done throughout his career, the batting superstar strode out with an unflinching desire to take his side home.
That purpose was evident in his dismantling of Kagiso Rabada with a sequence of 4, 4, 6, 4, right after his opening partner Venkatesh Iyer handed the South African a similar punishment in the second over that yielded 18 runs.
Kohli and Venkatesh added 62 runs in just 4.3 overs to rain even on the distant dreams of the Titans.
Once Rabada was nullified in three straight overs of his, the Titans did not have enough ammunition in the Power Play, in which RCB amassed 70 for two, to make an impact.
The dismissal of Venkatesh and Devdutt Padikkal, followed by the quick departure of skipper Rajat Patidar and Krunal Pandya, saw RCB slip to 91 for four.
But amid this little cavern of chaos, Kohli stood firm like a fort, stopping GT’s advances, and the 37-year-old reached his fifth fifty of the season with a pulled four off pacer Arshad Khan.
Tim David (24, 17b) produced a mini storm that eased the pressure on Kohli, who survived a scare as Shubman Gill’s catch off Arshad was found to have bumped on the grass in the umpire’s review.
The champion batter soon so befittingly fetched the winning moment for RCB with a six off Arshad.
The thundering shot also transformed the RCB dugout into a school children’s party after an examination.
Patidar, who joined MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma as the only captain to have successfully defended an IPL title, shed his usual stoic face, breaking into a wide grin.
Others around him rushed to the field to gather around Kohli, the beating heart of his franchise since 2008.
But before Kohli put on display his undimmed abilities in white ball format, RCB bowlers exploited a slow pitch to perfection, restricting a lethargic Gujarat Titans to a sub-par 155 for eight.
Shot-making was not exactly an easy proposition on the pitch No. 6 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, a mix of red and black soil, and it aptly reflected in the GT batting.
Washington Sundar resisted the trend with an unbeaten 50 (37b, 5×4), but the damage around him was far too big to mitigate.
The fatigue of playing Qualifier 2 on Friday and a delayed departure because of inclement weather at Mullanpur also might have added to their list of woes.
But none of that should not take any credit away from the RCB bowlers who found the correct lengths on this deck.
The Titans needed skipper Gill and his opening partner B Sai Sudharsan to fire upfront to pile a competitive total, but they failed in that endeavour.
A steady beginning was not alien to GT openers but Gill’s swat off Josh Hazlewood (2/37) took the leading edge of his bat to create a simple catch for his opposite number Patidar.
Sudharsan, who was once saved by DRS from being caught behind off Jacob Duffy, did not last long either.
The left-hander’s woeful pull off a well-directed high and wide bouncer by Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/29) did not travel beyond a running-in stumper Jitesh Sharma.
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Once their two batters, who have amassed over 700 runs each this season, the GT batting lost its rudders, ending an underwhelming Power Play phase at 45 for two.
There was no real fire in the rest of the batters to enact a recovery act.
Jos Buttler (19) and Washington, who brought up his fifty in 37 balls, tried to keep the Titans’ innings together but they struggled to shake off their defensive mien.
The young pacer Rasikh Salam Dhar (3/27), who continued his impressive run behind leaders Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood, picked up the wickets of an out-of-sync Nishant Sindhu (20 off 18 balls) and Rahul Tewatia as the home side lost the cream of its batting line-up even before reaching 100.
That the Titans had to wait till the 13th over for the first six off their innings — a mighty drag over mid-wicket off Krunal Pandya by Arshad — underlined GT’s turmoil on the night that belonged entirely to RCB and Kohli.
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