IPL 2023: Bangalore win by Kohli's stormy century, RCB's playoff hopes remain alive by defeating Hyderabad

On Thursday, the 65th match of the league stage in the Indian Premier League (IPL) was played between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Two centuries were seen in this match. Electing to bat first after losing the toss, SRH wicket-keeper batsman Heinrich Klaasen scored a century in 49 balls. With the help of his century, the team scored 186 runs for 5 wickets in 20 overs. Chasing which, Bengaluru won on the basis of Virat Kohli's century and captain Faf du Plessis's fifty. With this win, Bengaluru has kept alive the hopes of reaching the playoffs. On the basis of the batting of these two, RCB won by a margin of 8 wickets with four balls remaining.

Chasing 187 runs, the RCB team was given a solid start by its openers. Kohli and Faf batted fast. Virat Kohli was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar after completing his century in 62 balls. Shortly after his dismissal, Faf also went on to score a personal score of 71 runs. But by then both had brought the team closer to victory.

Virat Kohli scored his first century in the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad. This is Virat's sixth IPL century, he last scored a century on 19 April 2019 against Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata. In this way, Kohli scored a century in IPL after 1489 days. Earlier, Virat had scored 4 centuries in the 2016 season. His best IPL score is 113 runs

Bengaluru captain Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli shared another century partnership in the season. Du Plessis completed his fifty in 34 balls and Kohli in 36 balls. Chasing the target of 187 runs, Bangalore got off to a brisk start by Virat Kohli. Captain Faf du Plessis also started hitting shots from the third over. Both did Fifty Partnership in the fifth over and in 6 overs the team's score reached 64 runs without loss.

Batting first after losing the toss, the openers got Hyderabad off to a steady start. After adding 27 runs in 4 overs, both Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi were dismissed in the 5th over. Both were sent to the pavilion by Michael Bracewell. Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram, who landed in the 5th over, handled the innings and scored 21 runs in just 9 balls. Both made the team score 49 runs in 6 overs.

After losing 2 wickets in the fifth over itself, Heinrich Klaasen took over for SRH along with skipper Aiden Markram. Both shared a partnership of 76 runs off 50 balls. Marker was dismissed after scoring 18 runs and this partnership was broken. Klaasen added 58 runs to this partnership. Klaasen then shared a 74-run partnership with Harry Brook off 36 balls. This partnership was broken with the wicket of Klaasen. Brook scored 26 runs off 16 balls in this partnership.

Apart from Klaasen from Hyderabad, the rest of the batters could not do much. Abhishek Sharma scored 11 off 14 balls, Rahul Tripathi scored 15 off 12 balls, Captain Aiden Markram scored 18 off 20 balls, Harry Brook scored 27 off 19 balls and Glenn Phillips scored 5 off 4 balls. Bracewell took 2 wickets from Bangalore, while Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammad Siraj, and Harshal Patel got 1-1 wickets.

In the powerplay, wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen, who came out to bat at number-4 from Hyderabad, did an excellent batting. He hit fifty off 24 balls and also shared a 76-run partnership with captain Aiden Markram. Even after Markram, he kept one end and completed his first IPL century in 49 balls. He became the victim of Harshal Patel after scoring 104 runs in 51 balls.

Two centuries were scored in this match. With these two centuries, the number of centuries in IPL 2023 has increased to 9. Before Kohli and Klaasen, Hyderabad's Harry Brook, Gujarat's Shubman Gill, Rajasthan's Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mumbai's Suryakumar Yadav, Kolkata's Venkatesh Iyer and Punjab's Prabhsimran Singh have scored centuries.