Virat Kohli and his Royal Challengers Bangalore teammates finally tasted success on Saturday with a thumping eight-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab. It was a fine performance from a team that had entered the game after losing six games in a row. Bowling first, the Royal Challengers did a fine job to restrict the Kings XI to under 180.
Put in to bat first, the Kings XI were off to a stunning start with Chris Gayle and KL Rahul adding 66 runs for the first wicket. A few overs later, Kings XI suffered a mini collapse to find themselves reduced to 113 for 4 from 86 for 1. As a result, they slowed down in the middle and eventually ended on 173 for 4 despite Gayle scoring an unbeaten 99.
The Royal Challengers, in reply, did not face much trouble in chasing down the total. The visitors started well with Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel adding 43 runs for the first wicket. The Royal Challengers skipper and AB de Villiers then added 85 runs for the second wicket to put the Royal Challengers in the driver’s seat. The partnership ended when Mohammed Shami dismissed Kohli for 67.
De Villers, who too scored a fifty, and Marcus Stoinis then shared an unbeaten stand to take their team home with 4 balls remaining. However, the much-needed win turned a bit bitter when Virat Kohli became the third captain in IPL 2019 to be slapped a fine for his team maintaining a slow over-rate.
“As it was his team’s first offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Kohli was fined Rs 12 lakh,” the IPL said in a statement.
The IPL has imposed a fine of Rs 12 lakh on Kohli after the Royal Challengers ended their bowling innings at 21:45 IST.
Kohli is now in danger of getting a ban too. A second offence over-rate would result in a fine of INR 24 lakh for the captain and of INR 6 lakh or 25% of the match fee from every other player in the team, whichever is lesser. A third offence will cost the captain INR 30 lakh and a ban from the team’s next game, while each player in the XI will be fined INR 12 lakh or 50% of the match fee, whichever is lesser.