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Virat Kohli was a man of a mission right from the word go as Royal Challengers Bangalore went out to chase the mammoth target of 288. Kohli, alongside his RCB skipper Faf du Plessis, got off to a rollicking start as the duo clobbered 79 runs in the powerplay overs – the highest powerplay score in IPL history with Kohli 42 off 20 balls.

Kohli was dropped in the first over by Abhishek Sharma – a simple return catch that Sharma did not expect to come to him. Kohli then finished the over with a boundary. In the second over Kohli clobbered Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a four and a six, then proceeded to hit take two more fours of his former India teammate in his next over.

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A four and six followed off T Natarajan and a four ooff SRH skipper Pat Cummins. But, SRH’s bowling change in the form of Mayank Markande – who came in as the impact sub for Travis Head, the first innings centurion, proved to be the gamechanger as Markande silenced the Chinnaswamy crowd with an 83.7 kmph googly, completely outfoxing Kohli.

Kohli went for a slog sweep but was too early into his shot and missed it completely as the ball thudded onto the stumps. Kohli let out a loud shriek immediately after missing the ball and went on to vent his frustration even as he walked off the field.

Earlier, SRH batters ransacked 287 runs against a hapless Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowling attack on Monday after their 277-run effort against Mumbai Indians on March 27. Thus bettering their record for the highest-ever total in IPL and franchise league history.

The effort was led by Travis Head who clobbered a 39-ball 100 – the fourth fastest in IPL history; followed by Heinrich Klassen’s brutal 31-ball 67 and handy cameos from Aiden Markram (32 off 17), Abdul Samad (37 off 10) and Abhishek Sharma (34 off 22).

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For RCB, it was yet another listless bowling performance with their overseas recruit Reece Topley returning 1/68 in his four overs – the third worst bowling figures in IPL history, while four RCB bowlers went for over 50 runs- a first in IPL history as well.

SRH eventually ended with 287/3 – setting the second-highest total in T20 cricket. The innings had 22 sixes – the most in an IPL inning ever.

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first published: April 15, 2024, 22:27 IST

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