The Royal Challengers Bengaluru opener Virat Kohli has got to his fourth half-century in this edition of the IPL. He has been in great touch in this IPL and it seems like he has just carried on from his phenomenal century against the Kolkata Knight Riders in the previous game. The kind of batting that has been on display from Virat Kohli has been very calculated, more of a risk-free approach. He has played some beautiful flicks off his wrist and the ball has found the boundary with ease. Virat Kohli played a fine knock of 58 off 37 balls, including 4 fours and 3 sixes and striking at 156.

Virat Kohli has played the role of an anchor as he has supported the explosive knocks from Venkatesh Iyer and Devdutt Padikkal. Harpreet Brar has been very good with his deliveries and RCB has been his favourite opposition to bowl to. The batting performance has been a very good one indeed from RCB with a healthy scoring rate of above 10. It will be important for them to get to a total above 220, if they are to secure the 2 points against Punjab Kings.

Devdutt Padikkal and Venkatesh Iyer power RCB’s charge with Kohli’s steady foundation against PBKS

The Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to bowl first but the toss didn’t hold much importance with the dew factor being highly unlikely to come into play. Harpreet Brar did an excellent job with the ball as he got rid of both the left handers, Jacob Bethell and Devdutt Padikkal. Virat Kohli’s partnership along with Devdutt Padikkal helped RCB to battle through the powerplay and laid the foundation for a mammoth total on the board. The addition of Venkatesh Iyer has worked in favour of RCB as he has been able to score some sensational boundaries with a touch of innovation.

With plenty of firepower to come in the batting unit for RCB, a total above 220 could still be on the cards. Venkatesh Iyer has risen to the occasion and he has filled the void of Rajat Patidar in some style. This would have probably come outside the plans of Punjab Kings as he hasn’t batted a lot of times in this edition of the IPL. With Romario Shepherd, Jitesh Sharma and Krunal Pandya still to come in the innings, the game could probably be slipping from the hands of the Punjab Kings. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be confident that they can get to a total good enough to ensure their qualification into the playoffs and a spot in the top 2.