)
Virat Kohli led from the front with a breathtaking unbeaten 93 as Royal Challengers Bangalore made short work of a challenging target from Sunrisers Hyderabad winning by seven wickets in a Pepsi Indian Premier League match, here today.
Chasing a commendable target of 162, Kohli made a mockery of Sunrisers bowlers as he singlehandedly guided his team to victory smashing 11 four and four sixes off 47 balls as they knocked off the runs with 14 balls remaining.
It was a sweet revenge for RCB who had lost to Sunrisers in a 'Super Over' two days back.
The match swung decisively in RCB's favour in the 16th over bowled by Amit Mishra after 'Strategic Time-Out' where Kohli smashed the bulky leggie for 21 runs. This included to straight sixes. In the next Thisara Perera over he got another 16 runs to close in on the match and couple of boundaries from Ishant sealed the issue.
He had a partnership of 66 with Moises Henriques (7) for the fourth wicket but it was Kohli who was in complete control as he paced his innings in brilliant fashion.
The ploy to open the bowling with Hanuma Vihari failed miserably this time as Agarwal hit him for a four and six to get him out of the attack. The local boy then pulled Ishant for a six over deep fine leg to get 15 runs from the over.
But the youngster paid the price for being over aggressive as he mistimed a pull-shot off a back of length delivery from Perera which ballooned up for skipper Sangakkara to take an easy catch.
Ishant however got the big wicket of Chris Gayle (13) as he bowled one that moved a shade after pitching and the Jamaican nicked it to Parthiv Patel behind the stumps.
Kohli's first scoring stroke was six over mid-wicket off Perera. Along with AB de Villiers, he added 49 runs but the South African failed to clear the fence off a rank long hop from leggie Cameron White as gave a simple catch to Hanuma at deep mid-wicket fence.
