The legendary batsman Virat Kohli scored an incredible 77 runs at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Monday. Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik hit an undefeated 10-ball 28-ball blitz to lead Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their first IPL 2024 victory, defeating Punjab Kings by four wickets.

Following their bowlers’ outstanding efforts, which included spells of 176/6 from Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, and Glenn Maxwell, restricting PBKS to 176/6, Kohli wowed the packed house with a breathtaking 49-ball 77 that featured two sixes and eleven fours, demonstrating yet another masterclass in T20 chasing. At the beginning of the chase, he was lucky to be dropped for nought by Jonny Bairstow, which proved to be a crucial moment.

However, RCB appeared to be in trouble when Harshal Patel removed him in the 16th over, needing 47 runs off of 22 balls.With four balls remaining, Karthik helped RCB cross the finish line with ease. He came in and hit an undefeated 28 off 10 balls, laced with three fours and two sixes, while holding a continuous 48-run stand with Mahipal Lomror (17 not out).

Chasing 177, Kohli started by edging against Curran without using any footwork, which resulted in Bairstow failing to catch the ball and giving up a boundary. Later, he would take 16 runs off the first over by driving Curran through covers twice and clipping past short, fine leg.

While Kohli launched the RCB innings with three resounding boundaries off Arshdeep Singh, wickets fell at the other end when Cameron Green nicked behind off the fast bowler and captain Faf du Plessis misjudged a loft off Kagiso Rabada to mid-on.

Curran and Harshal Patel used their pace and variation to slow down PBKS, while Harpreet Brar bowled mostly in the length area and kept a stump-to-stump line. However, it had little impact on Kohli, who reached his fifty in thirty-one balls after swatting Rahul Chahar for six over extra cover.

The captain of the Punjab Kings thought they could have bowled a little bit more. “We could have bowled better in the last over, but the match went to the wire.” On a small field, Harpreet is bowling really well, especially against left-handers. Under intense pressure, he made progress. Captain of PBKS Shikhar Dhawan says, “We paid the price for dropping Kohli” following the team’s defeat by RCB. People relate to his thigh-five and are pleased to see him doing it, Dhawan said.