Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter Virat Kohli has been fined 10 per cent of his match fee for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Monday.
Attacking fifties from Devon Conway (83 off 45) and Shivam Dube (52 off 27) powered CSK to 226/6. Then CSK bowlers then held their nerve and survived Glenn Maxwell (76 off 36) and Faf Du Plessis's (62 off 33) blitzes to win the game by 8 runs in yet another thriller.
"Mr. Kohli admitted to the Level 1 offence under Article 2.2 of the IPL Code of Conduct," an IPL media advisory said on Tuesday.
"For Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the Match Referee's decision is final and binding," it added.
Coming to the match, chasing 227, RCB copped a huge early blow as they lost Virat Kohli who dragged one onto the stumps, off Impact Player Akash Singh. He looked to swing one to the leg side but got an inside edge onto the pads and the ball then trickled onto the stumps. Akash could have had two wickets in the over but Maheesh Theekshana cropped Mahipal Lomror at mid-off. Lomror though couldn't make the most of the lifeline as he departed in the next over, miscuing one-off Tushar Deshpande to backward point, without adding any runs to his tally.
RCB though went on the counter-attack despite the loss of two wickets as Glen Maxwell got into the groove early by smacking two sixes off Akash Singh in the third over and Faf du Plessis too got going with three fours and three sixes as they amassed 47 from three overs and reach 75/2 at the end of Powerplay.
Jadeja brought some calm for CSK with just six runs in his first over. Maxwell though sort of made it up in the next two overs cracking four and two sixes to make it 24 off two overs. Du Plessis then brought up his fifty off 23 balls. Maxwell brought up his fifty, off 24 balls, in style with two fours in a row off Pathirana which was followed by a massive 94m six over the deep square leg as RCB reached 121/2 at the end of 10 overs.
Theekshana had the chance to break the partnership in the next over but he dropped a tough caught and bowled chance of Du Plessis when on 52.
Theekshana made up for it as he had the big wicket of Maxwell in his next over. The Australian batter (76 off 36) went for a swipe across the line but got a top edge high in the sky and Dhoni pouched a very good catch.
Moeen Ali then provided another big moment as he bounced back hard to dismiss Faf du Plessis (62 off 33) after being hit for two sixes in the over. Dhoni accepted another skier calmly as the equation came down to 68 needed off 6 overs.
Dinesh Karthik then took over the mantle and thumped three fours and a six. In between there was drama as he was dropped by Gaikwad but two deliveries later Theekshana made sure he didn't make any mistake as Deshpande sent back Karthik on 28(!4).
RCB sent Suyash Prabhudessai as their Impact Player, replacing Siraj.
With 35 needed off 18, Pathirana struck off the first ball of the 18th over, having Shahbaz (!2 off 10 balls) caught at long off. He bowled an excellent over, giving away just four runs to bring the equation to 31 off 12.
The pressure was mounting and Deshpande dismissed Parnell after bowling a WIDE off the first ball of the penultimate over. With 28 needed off 9 Prabhudessai smashed a six over deep mid-wicket and then scampered for a couple off the next. The last ball brought just a single as they took 12 off the over.
With 19 required off the last over, Pathirana gave away just two singles off the first two balls but then Prabhudessai unleashed a reverse scoop over third man for a six to bring it down to 11 needed off three. Pathirana responded with an excellent yorker which was a dot. With 11 needed off 2, Pathirana bowled another excellent slower ball which Prabhudessai swiped one to long on for a couple and with 9 needed off the last ball, another slower one had Prabhudessai (19 off 11) caught at deep mid-wicket as CSK won by 8 runs.
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