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28 March 2024

IPL Playoffs Gujarat v Bangalore: AB de Villiers tames Lions

Published
By Cricket Correspondent

AB de Villiers played a match-winning unbeaten knock of 79 to take Royal Challengers Bangalore into the final of the Indian Premier League after RCB beat Gujarat Lions by four wickets in Qualifier 1 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday night.

Giving him solid company at the other end was Iqbal Abdulla with 33 and together they put on 91 runs for the sixth wicket to take their team home with eight balls to spare.

RCB suffered early jolts when their skipper Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson were all sent back early. The damage was done by Dhawal Kulkarni bagging four wickets but Shadab Jakati gave away cheap runs to let the match slip off Lions' grasp.

Earlier, a fiery 73 off 41 balls (6x6, 5x4) from Dwayne Smith raised Gujarat Lions' hopes after they were struggling at 9-3 at one stage to reach 158.

Iqbal Abdulla hits Bavo for three fours.

Shadab Jakati has almost thrown away the match for Lions giving away 45 runs in his three overs. RCB 126-6, 16 overs.

De Villiers is going for the jugular and the bowler to face his wrath is Dwayne Smith. The South African hit the West Indian for a six and a four to bring up his half century. RCB 108-6, 15 overs.

De Villiers is fighting it out for Bangalore and giving him good company is Abdulla by rotating the strike. RCB 89-6, 12 overs.

Jadeja strikes again although the ball looked like going outside off stump. RCB 70-6, 10 overs.

Stuart Binny lbw b Jadeja 21 (15b 2x4 1x6)

Shadab Jakati goes for 19 runs in his first over with Stuart Binny clobbering him for two fours and a six. RCB 65-5, 9 overs. 

Kulkarni finishes an impressive spell of 4-1-14-4. RCB 47-5, 8 overs.

Kulkarni bags his fourth wicket. It's a dream spell. RCB 31-5, 6 overs.

Sachin Baby c Jakati b Kulkarni 0 (3b)

Jadeja strikes early and gets the big wicket of Watson. RCB 28-4, 5 overs.

Shane Watson c Smith b Jadeja 1 (6b)

Kulkarni is on fire as he rattles Bangalore with his third wicket. RCB 25-3, 4 overs.

KL Rahul c Smith b Kulkarni 0 (1b)

The big man is gone, clean bowled by Kulkarni.

Chris Gayle b Kulkarni 9 (12b 2x4 0x6)

The Bangalore crowd is silenced as their favourite son Kohli is out dragging a widish shot onto his stumps. RCB 17-1, 2 overs.  

Virat Kohli b Kulkarni 0 (2b 0x4 0x6)

Gujarat Lions innings

A fiery 73 off 41 balls (6x6, 5x4) from Dwayne Smith raised Gujarat Lions' hopes after they were struggling at 9-3 at one stage to reach 158 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Qualifier 1.

Iqbal Abdula rocked the lions by sending back both openers -- Brendon McCullum and Aaron Finch -- and Shane Watson bagged four wickets but Smith kept Lions' in the fray with a fighting knock.

Dhawal Kulkarni run out 10 (4b 2x4 0x6)

Jordan bags his second wicket.

Praveen Kumar b Jordan 1 (2b)

Watson strikes again to send Bravo back. Quite an eventful over. 6, 6, W, W. Wide, 4, 4. GL 154-8, 18 overs.

Dwayne Bravo b Watson 8 (6b 1x4 0x6)

Eklavya Dwivedi slams two big sixes off Watson but is out the next ball caught by Kohli at mid-on. 

A superb innings from Smith comes to an end. Chahal who faced Smith's stick had the last laugh but not before the West Indian has given Lions something to fight. GL 121-6, 17 overs.

Dwayne Smith c Kohli b Chahal 73 (41b 5x4 6x6)

Watson grabs his second wicket and that of Jadeja. GL 108-5, 16 overs.

Ravindra Jadeja c Gayle b Watson 3 (7b 0x4 0x6)

Smith brings up Gujarat Lions' 100 with a six off Aravind. GL 104-4, 15 overs.

Chris Jordan ends the 85-run partnership of Karthik and Smith. GL 94-4, 14 overs.

Dinesh Karthik b Jordan 26 (30b 2x4 0x6)

Smith is taking the challenge head on to reach his half century. GL 89-3, 13 overs.

Runs have started coming thick and fast. GL 64-3, 11 overs.

Dwayne Smith cuts loose after the break with a six and two fours off Chahal. GL 58-3, 10 overs  

Strategic Time-out. GL 42-3, 9 overs.

Dwayne Smith takes a little pressure off the Lions with two boundaries from Abdulla. GL 20-3, 5 overs.

Briliant captaincy from Kohli bringing in Watson and he bowls a short one. We all know that Raina is never comfortable playing those ball and right enough holes out to Aravind. GL 10-3, 4 overs.

Suresh Raina c Aravind b Watson 1 (9b)

Good decision there by Virat to start with a spinner from the other end and Abdulla has delivered by getting rid of both dangerous batsmen Finch and McCullum. Lions 7-2, 2 overs.

Aaron Finch c Gayle b Iqbal Abdulla 4 (6b)

Brendon McCullum steps out to hit left-arm spinner Abdulla out of the ground off his first ball only to spoon it to AB De Villiers.

Brendon McCullum c de Villiers b Iqbal Abdulla 1 (4b)

Virat Kohli has finally won the toss and has predictably opted to chase. With the kind of batting strength RCB have and the kind of form the captain is in, it was no surprise. The crowd is ecstatic.

Both captains have decided to go with the same teams of the previous match.

Teams
Gujarat Lions:
A Finch, B McCullum, S Raina, D Karthik, D Smith, R Jadeja, D Bravo, E Dwivedi, S Jakati, P Kumar, D Kulkarni.

RCB: C Gayle, V Kohli, AB de Villiers, K Rahul, S Watson, Sachin Baby, S Binny, C Jordan, Iqbal Abdulla, S Aravind, Y Chahal.

Gujarat Lions and Royal Challengers Bangalore will clash in Qualifier 1 of the IPL9 Playoffs at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Tuesday.

The mouth-watering summit clash will kickstart the knockout phase of the two-month long event with the winner going straight to the May 29 final while the loser gets another chance to qualify in the Eliminator.

Perennial favourites RCB seemed set to go all the way especially since skipper Virat Kohli is in red-hot form.

The Gujarat Lions in contrast started off with a bang, winning six of their first seven matches, before knocking out defending champions Mumbai Indians to storm into the Playoffs.

Kohli could become the first player to score 1,000 runs in an IPL season having an aggregate of 919 runs, including four centuries.

AB de Villiers also has an aggregate of 603 runs making RCB the hot favourites.

The Lions will expect McCullum and Finch followed by Suresh Raina.

Both teams won their respective home matches.

However Kohli scored a century in both matches with RCB thumping the Lions by a record margin of 144 runs.