The Royal Challengers Bangalore faced the Punjab Kings on Thursday. Virat Kohli was back as the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore as their regular skipper Faf Du Plessis was unable to take the field due to an injury. The Royal Challengers were asked to bat by PBKS skipper Sam Curran after he won the toss in the afternoon fixture. RCB put on a secure opening partnership of 137 runs in 16 overs. The middle order was not able to fire much after that and RCB finished their innings with a below par total of 174 runs. Purple cap holder Mohammed Siraj took out Atharva Taide on the very second ball of the innings lbw. Matthew Short walked in to bat at No.3. Short is an Aussie batter known for his big hits. Short was looking in great touch as he picked up Wayne Parnell for a six over fine leg.
This is when Virat Kohli tossed the ball to Lankan leggie Wanindu Hasaranga . Hasaranga struck gold right on the very first delivery of the over as he cleaned up Matthew Short . Short stepped out of the crease wanting to slog Hasaranga for a six but completely missed the ball and got clean bowled behind. Short had gotten out to a similar delivery by Rashid Khan in their game against the Gujarat Titans . He had completely missed the ball and was clean bowled in that game as well. It is possible that Virat Kohli had seen that delivery and hence tossed the ball towards Hasaranga in this game. Hence Irfan Pathan was seen complimenting this captaincy tactic by Kohli.
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This proved to be very helpful for the Royal Challengers as the Punjab Kings were reduced to a score of 20-2 in just the third over. This put pressure on the Punjab batting lineup and they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.