New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bengaluru registered a smooth victory over Gujarat Titans by five wickets in Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium Sunday to lift the Indian Premier League trophy for the second straight year.
The defending champions chased a target of 156 with 12 balls remaining, as star batter Virat Kohli smashed his fastest IPL half-century in just 25 balls. He finished not out with 75 runs off 42 balls, including nine fours and three sixes.
The Rajat Patidar-led side has become only the third IPL team to win consecutive times.
Kohli and Venkatesh Iyer (32 off 16) got RCB off to a flying start, but Rashid Khan scalped two wickets (Iyer and Devdutt Padikal) in one over to make the game wide open.
Tim David assisted Kohli towards the end with a quick 24 off 17 balls.
Batting first, Gujarat Titans could mount only 155 runs—the same score they restricted RCB to in the league game at the Narendra Modi Stadium earlier this season.
The first half was largely owned by RCB after Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar got Shubhman Gill and Sai Sudharsan out cheaply.
Titans scored only 63 runs in the first ten overs and 92 in the next ten, thanks to Washington Sundar’s half century.
Rasikh Salam had arguably his best game of the season. He picked three wickets of Nishant Sindhu (20 off 18), Rahul Tewatia (7 off 5) and Rashid Khan (7 off 3). Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar picked two wickets each.
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