AHMEDABAD: Virat Kohli lifted his arms aloft the moment he swatted Arshad Khan into the stands, sending the 900014 to a frenzy at the Narendra Modi Stadium. In seconds, he was engulfed by his teammates at the batting crease. Kohli, who broke away from the crowd to raise his bat and helmet to acknowledge the packed stadium that was chanting his name, had taken Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their second IPL title, beating Gujarat Titans.
Not long before in the innings, when Rashid Khan cleaned up Krunal Pandya, reducing RCB to 91/4 with a double-wicket over, GT had a glimmer of hope. But 156 was the kind of chase Kohli eats for breakfast. Or could do it in his sleep. However one wanted to put it, Gill and the lakh people at the stadium knew that this total and chase was right up his alley from the halfway mark.
Batting on 40 from 18 balls, till that point Kohli had just eight non-boundary runs. This was not the Kohli of the past and neither was RCB. The former captain, who played anchor for the first 15 years of his IPL career, has chosen to be aggressive and it paid off. But with 65 runs needed from 66 balls, Kohli switched back to his old self. He knew as long as he stays in the middle, RCB are winning the title. And it was his chance to be there for the team and take it across the line in a big final for once. Over the next three overs, with Tim David by his side, Kohli ran hard — eight off his next 16 runs came by running between wickets. In the process, he also notched up his quickest IPL fifty (25 balls) in 19 years.
Once within reach, he tried to go over and was caught by Gill at mid-off only to be declared not out with the ball touching the grass. The writing was on the wall. After 18 years of trying to do this for RCB, this was Kohli’s moment of glory as he finished off in style.
However, Kohli did not do it alone. He took RCB home, but the title defence and triumph was possible because of the much-reverred bowling attack. From the moment Rajat Patidar won the toss and opted to bowl, the contest was down to one thing — whether or not Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar could run through the top-heavy Titans. The latter, with 17 powerplay wickets, had led the way for RCB through the league stages. The Australian, who joined the party late, did not want to miss out on the big day.
Coming in during the third over, Hazlewood pulled the length back a little and got extra bounce to challenge Gill and B Sai Sudharsan on a two-paced pitch. And it worked. The first victim was Gill, who top-edged a back-of-length delivery, trying to go across the line. Soon, Kumar followed suit. Sai Sudharsan was caught in the crease to a bouncer and took the long walk back. That was perhaps the game, set, match and championship.
However, RCB were here for the kill. Rasikh Salam made a length ball climb to remove Nishant Sindhu. Krunal Pandya outsmarted Jos Buttler. When it felt like GT would not even get to 150, Washington came up with an unbeaten 50 off 37 balls to take them to a respectable total. That, however, was never going to be enough against Kohli who made the night his own. RCB are now two-time IPL champions.
Brief scores: GT 155/8 in 20 ovs (Washington 50 n.o, Nishant 20; Rasikh 3/27, Bhuvneshwar 2/29, Hazlewood 2/37) lost to RCB 161/5 in 18 ovs (Kohli 75 n.o, Iyer 32; Rashid 2/25).
