In the IPL game on Friday between the Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bangalore, a drama unfolded at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. After dismissing Gill from 22 yards last day, bowler Suyash Sharma taunted him by copying his “bow down” celebration that Gill did back in the 2023 season after knocking RCB out of IPL 2023 and his iconic century against RCB. Suyash also waved his cap to the Red Army in the Chinnaswamy crowd after cheekily pulling off that drama, and the crowd clearly loved it as they roared and celebrated that moment.  

In the first innings, Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan put up a solid partnership that put GT ahead in the game. Batting together, they put on 128 runs without a single wicket. Although most work was done by Sai Sudarshan, scoring his third IPL ton, Gill gave him good company, but he mistimed a shot towards long off and got dismissed, scoring 32 off 24 balls. This was when the drama broke off. Although GT put up a huge total of 206 for RCB to chase, the defending champions easily chased that down with the help of Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal.

Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal help RCB win, but Virat Kohli says Padikkal’s innings was the difference.

Virat Kohli(81) and Devdutt Padikkal (55) successfully orchestrated the chase against the Gujarat Titans, giving RCB their fifth win of the season and placing them at the second spot.

Devdutt played a quickfire innings, and Virat Kohli, as usual, anchored his innings as he does in a chase to take their partnership to 115. Although Virat Kohli received the Player of the Match award in the match, he admitted that the main tone of the chase was set up by Devdutt Padikkal and how he, without taking high risk, played smartly by slogging the ball. He also said that this approach helped him to also build a partnership and later accelerate his innings too.

“I think Dev’s done this twice this season, where he’s come in and absolutely played a blinder from ball one. You know, the first ball he hit off Rabada was magnificent, and he has the game awareness and the ability, especially in conditions like ours, to be able to play good cricketing shots and hurt opposition, striking over 200, which is quite rare, to be honest,” Virat Kohli said in the post-match presentation.

“You never see him slogging the ball. You feel like he’s not giving you a sniff in the game and yet he’s scoring so freely. So I think Dev’s innings was the clear difference in the first half,” he added.

Virat Kohli is now leading the Orange Cap Race with 328 runs in just seven innings. Do you think this year he will be getting the Orange Cap?