Virat Kohli stood tall among his struggling teammates with a stroke-filled half-century as Royal Challengers Bangalore managed a below-par 154 for six against Chennai Super Kings in the final group league encounter of the two teams in the seventh edition of IPL.
Kohli struck 73 off 49 balls with two fours and five sixes as some of the other batsmen failed to get going against a disciplined CSK attack.
Veteran left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra impressed one and all with figures of three for 33 including two beautiful deliveries to dismiss Rilee Russouw (1) and AB de Villiers (10). He got the South Africa's limited overs captain with a perfect yorker that pegged the middle-stump back.
In his final over, Nehra removed rival skipper Kohli to show that Dhoni's decision to field him after a gap of 12 matches (he played the first match) was correct.
Save Kohli, none of other batsmen could find their feet and he fought a lone battle against CSK.
Out of his five sixes, four were hit over the deep mid-wicket region while the other was hit in the long-off region. Kohli was finally out when Nehra bowled a well disguised slower delivery that rolled into the stumps.
Kohli had a 55-run partnership for fourth wicket with Yuvraj and scripted a 42-run partnership for fifth wicket with De Villiers, before the mercurial South African was castled by Nehra.
With three down for 33 in sixth over, Yuvraj and Kohli out their heads down to build the innings. In tenth over, Kohli cut lose and plundered 10 runs along with Yuvraj , which also included a six off Ashwin over long-on.
In the next 18 deliveries, Yuvraj and Kohli cracked 27 runs with flurry of boundaries against Sures Raina and Ashwin. However, the Rs 14-crore baby was out to a woeful shot off to left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja for 25 off 24 balls with two boundaries, leaving Bangalore struggling at 88 for four in 14 overs.
