By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Tuesday beat Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 6 runs, finally ending their trophy-less 18 year journey in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bowl, restricting RCB to 190/9.
More than 91,000 fans packed into the 132,000-capacity stadium in Ahmedabad, a sea of Bengaluru’s red and Virat Kohli’s jersey number 18 dominating the stands as chants of “Kohli, Kohli” rang out.
They celebrated noisily when Kohli and RCB clinched victory for the first time in the 18 years of the IPL, their three previous finals having all ended in defeat.
The 36-year-old, one of India’s all-time greats in all formats of the game, collapsed on the ground after the win and then got up to be hugged by his teammates as the crowd celebrated their hero.
Opening the batting alongside England’s Phil Salt, Kohli’s crucial knock from 35 deliveries, took RCB to 143 before he was the fourth wicket to fall, caught and bowled by Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai.
Salt struck 16 from nine balls before being caught by Shreyas Iyer off Kyle Jamieson, while England all-rounder Liam Livingstone hit 25 as the side’s numbers three to six all posted scores in the mid-20s.
Having accumulated steadily, Andy Flower’s team failed to accelerate in the final over, with Arshdeep Singh taking three wickets in his last six balls to ensure RCB didn’t pass 200.
Kings found themselves 98-4 in the 13th over of their reply, losing captain and star batter Shreyas for just one, caught by Jitesh Sharma off Romario Shepherd.
Nehal Wadhera and Shashank Singh began to rebuild, but their side’s challenge effectively ended when Wadhera and the big-hitting Marcus Stoinis were both caught in the same Bhuvneshwar Kumar over.
Needing 29 from Josh Hazlewood’s final over, Shashank hammered 22 from the last four balls of the innings, bringing his side tantalisingly close to their target with an unbeaten 61.
However, his efforts were ultimately in vain, and after 18 years and three previous final defeats, Kohli and RCB could finally celebrate a successful IPL campaign.
The 18th edition of the world’s richest cricket league ended nine days late due to a pause because of the military conflict between India and Pakistan.