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Image Credit - Times Of India[/caption]The sublime century by skipper K L Rahul was a splendid all-round performance and was the highlight as RCB was defeated by KXIP by a staggering margin of 97 runs on Thursday.
The RCB bowlers were punished by Rahul who opened the inning as they went into submission and helped KXIP to a daunting score of 206 for three before a disciplined effort was put up by the bowling attack to bundle the side of Virat Kohli for 109 with another three overs to go.
Later in the inning, Kohli has dropped the skipper of KXIP who went on to score an unbeaten 132 off just 69 balls as the inning was laced with seven sixes and fourteen boundaries.
Rahul played a spectacular knock and surpassed Risabh Pant with a score of 128 in the year 2018 and posted the highest individual score by any captain in IPL history or by any Indian.
RCB gave a rather ordinary performance after their victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the opening match of the tournament. KXIP won this match after their defeat against Delhi Capitals in the super over.
From the beginning of the run chase, RCB was in all kinds of problems with Josh Philippe (0) and Devdutt Padikkal (1) went back to the dugout in the first couple of overs.
Kohli who dropped two catches in the match and probably one of the best in run chases, failed miserably and managed just a run of five balls and was caught off a delivery by Sheldon Cottrell.
Opening batsmen Aaron Finch (20), then joined A B de Villiers (28) in the middle. The duo was milking deliveries everywhere and looked very dangerous. They went on to add 49 runs before the stand was broken by Ravi Bishnoi who took the wicket priced scalp of the ODI captain for Australia.
Murugan Ashwin (3/21) and Bishnoi (3/32) dismissed De Villiers and Finch in quick succession as RCB was reeling with a score of 57 for the loss of five wickets. The top-scorer for RCB was Washington Sundar who top-scored with 30 off just 27 deliveries.
For KXIP, Ashwin has been the pick of the bowlers and picked up three wickets and gave away just 21 runs. Bishnoi was impressed again by claiming three important wickets. Economic spells were bowled by Glenn Maxwell (1/10), Mohammed Shami (1/14), and Cottrell (2/17).
Earlier in the day, Rahul reached 2000 IPL runs being the fastest by any Indian reaching the milestone in the 60th inning. Sachin Tendulkar reached the milestone in 63 innings and he clipped a full-length delivery for four to break the record.
Mayank Agarwal looked dangerous and shared a 57 run stand with Rahul. However, Yuzvendra Chahal cleaned him up with a googly.
Shivam Dube took the wickets of GlennMaxwell and Nicholas Pooran as both of them failed. Saini, Steyn, and Yadav all failed against Rahul.
