India veteran Virat Kohli produced an explosive knock as Royal Challengers Bengaluru secured a five-wicket win over Gujarat Titans to retain their Indian Premier League title on Sunday.
Bengaluru, who ended a 17-season drought by winning their maiden IPL title last year, carried that momentum into this season and chased down 156 with ease in 18 overs.
Put into bat, Gujarat never found their footing against Bengaluru's incisive bowling, losing their in-form openers in the powerplay and managing only 155-8 at a packed Narendra Modi Stadium awash in red in support of the defending champions.
Bengaluru made light work of the chase, cruising through without any real alarm as Kohli and Venkatesh Iyer (32 off 16) set the tone early, helping the team post 70-2 in the powerplay.
Kohli, famously dubbed the 'chase master', tore into the attack with an unbeaten 75 off 42 balls, including three sixes and nine fours, also bringing up his fastest IPL fifty to take his tally to 68 half-centuries and nine hundreds.
"Such is the demand of the sport today. You have these super young players pushing you all the time and asking you to change your game and up the ante," said Kohli after being named player-of-the-match.
"It's an exciting situation because it gives you something to improve on, something to work towards. And I just take a lot of pride in getting better and just trying to figure out areas where I can improve."
The 37-year-old shrugged off a brief setback when Rashid Khan struck twice in the same over and rebuilt the chase with Tim David, who made a crucial 24 off 17.
He also required medical attention on his right leg after the 12th over and had it heavily strapped, but showed no signs of slowing down thereafter as he steered Bengaluru home with a six off the last ball.
Gujarat lost their leading scorers Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan early to slump to 45-2 in the powerplay, and though Washington Sundar struck an unbeaten 50 off 37 deliveries, the effort lacked support as the innings never gained momentum.
"I think if we would have gotten close to 180-190, it would have been a good match," said Gujarat captain Gill.
"We lost a couple of early wickets and then we kind of lost the momentum in the middle, couldn't really get going."
Bengaluru delivered a disciplined, miserly bowling performance, with none conceding more than 10 an over, as Rasikh Dar took three wickets while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood claimed two each.
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