In the sixth game of Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) Shikhar Dhawan’s Punjab Kings (PBKS) took on Faf du Plessis’ Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on March 25 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won the toss and elected to bowl first in the match. In the bowler’s graveyard, the RCB bowling unit stepped up their game and did not allow the Punjab Kings to post a huge total on the board.
The PBKS batsmen just couldn’t get going and couldn’t play an attacking brand of cricket. Shikhar Dhawan, after quickly losing his opening partner Jonny Bairstow, batted cautiously throughout his innings and was dismissed when he attempted to launch an attack. The PBKS captain was dismissed after scoring 45 runs off 37 balls and his innings consisted of 5 fours and 1 six.
Then, Prabhsimran Singh (25), Liam Livingstone (17), Sam Curran (23) and Jitesh Sharma (27) made significant contributions. However, the real bombardment came from Shashank Singh, who took off.
Just after coming out through the middle, Shashank launched an attack on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowlers. He led the bowling unit to the cleaners and smashed runs with a strike rate of 262.50 in his 8-ball stay at the crease. Shashank Singh smashed 21 runs and his innings consisted of one four and two sixes. PBKS posted 176/6 on the board, which was not such a good total considering the ground hosting the match.
Talking about the Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowlers, Mohammed Siraj and Glenn Maxwell picked up two wickets each while Yash Dayal and Alzarri Joseph bagged one wicket each with the former giving away his runs with an economy of 5.75.
Chasing the target, Faf du Plessis left his partner Virat Kohli in the middle in the third over when he was dismissed after scoring a poor 3 runs in 7 balls. If that was not enough, Cameron Green also scored the same runs as his captain and returned to the dugout in the fifth over.
Virat Kohli then took the responsibility and put together 43 runs in 35 balls with Rajat Patidar helping RCB get much-needed stability. After losing Patidar, Kohli continued to bat brilliantly and featured in two more great partnerships with Glenn Maxwell and Anuj Rawat.
However, today’s great batsman could not finish the game for his team. Harshal Patel dismissed him in the 16th innings after smashing 77 runs off 49 balls and his knock consisted of 11 fours and 2 sixes.
In the end, Dinesh Karthik played an exceptional cameo of 28 runs and was well supported by Mahipal Lomror (17) as Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the match by 4 wickets to register their first win in the competition.
Here’s how Twitter reacted to RCB vs PBKS, match 6 of IPL 2024:
Brilliant from RCB. Virat Kohli’s entry and his strike rate of 157 was special 👏
—Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) March 25, 2024
VK doing VK. DK doing DK. Impact player (Lomror) doing impact player work. The home team wins again. 6/6 wins for local teams this season. Who will be the first visiting team to win? #RCBvPBKS #IPL2024
—Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) March 25, 2024
WHAT GAME! WHAT AN ENDING! 🔥🔥🔥
– Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) March 25, 2024
💔
– Kings of Punjab (@PunjabKingsIPL) March 25, 2024
RCB HAS DEFEATED PUNJAB KINGS IN CHINNASWAMY. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/EEBWJMUbKv
-Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) March 25, 2024
RCB DEFEAT PBKS BY 4 WICKETS….!!!!
– What an incredible chase, the heroes are Kohli, Lomror and Karthik. RCB is back in action in IPL 2024. pic.twitter.com/uw9TwmhX9z
—Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) March 25, 2024
DK must go to the world cup 😊😊… jokes aside but he is a beast in the death overs for rcb #RCBvsPKBS #Dk
– Samip Rajguru (@samiprajguru) March 25, 2024
DK once again proves why he is among the best in a tense T20 chase! #Cricket #RCBvsPBKS #IPL2024
– Chandresh Narayanan (@chand2579) March 25, 2024
Start from VK! Finish from DK! Rcb wins, life is good, everything is fine 🔥🔥
– Danish Sait (@DanishSait) March 25, 2024
Oh, @DineshKarthikNo one else slides between the comment box and the middle like you do!
—Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) March 25, 2024
Preity Zinta looks very sad now, her team is losing from a winning position 😞
It’s very difficult for me to choose between her and King Kohli but I will go with Kohli 💔💔💔#IPL2024 #lost #HojaoADFree pic.twitter.com/ZYYhJJNIq8
– Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) March 25, 2024
PBKS bowlers created so much garbage that Bengaluru is short of water and cannot clean it.
– Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) March 25, 2024
Dinesh Karthik is now competing for the T20 World Cup.😂
-Bhawana (@bhawanakohli5) March 25, 2024
This is the swan song that Dinesh Karthik fully deserves. He has never had a chance to play for CSK. Hopefully, he should get to sign at Chepauk. It would be a fitting farewell.
PS: Also, CSK tried their best to get him this season due to their long association with IC.—Venkata Krishna B (@venkatatweets) March 25, 2024
What a great victory for #RCB. Well done Kohli and the boys. Much needed first victory of the #IPL2024
-Dodda Ganesh Great Ganesh (Modi Ka Parivar) (@doddaganesha) March 25, 2024
DK in the year of the World Cup.#RCBvPBKS pic.twitter.com/XY3nH7cyCY
– Himanshu Pareek (@Sports_Himanshu) March 25, 2024
.@DineshKarthik the man 🤌🏾 Class, composure and experience wrapped him up to @RCBTweets!! Congratulations to @mahipallomror36 for contributing his best game as an impact player👏🏾
– Robin Aiyuda Uthappa (@robbieuthappa) March 25, 2024
Leave it to DK! It is not the first time that the goalkeeper has come up with a wonderful match-winning cameo to end Punjab’s hopes at the death. Heady opening week of IPL2024!
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) March 25, 2024