Kohli, Maxwell Turn on Successive Balls; Harpreet Brar Provides First Blood vs RCB
Harpreet snapped 2/31 in 3 overs (AP Photo)
It wasn't the first time when Royal Challengers Bangalore saw Harpreet Brar changing the tempo against them. Punjab Kings' left-arm spinner altered the game's fortune by scalping two massive wickets, i.e. of Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell, on consecutive deliveries at Mohali on Thursday.
Interestingly, in IPL 2021, Brar gave RCB a mini heartache by sending the likes of Kohli, AB de Villiers and Maxwell to the hut.
Kohli, after smacking his fourth fifty of the IPL 2023, fell to the tweaker while attempting a sweep but edged it to the keeper Jitesh Sharma, who took a sharp take down the leg side. The next was Maxwell's chance, who mistimed a hoick into the offside straight to point.
Before Brar's over, Bangalore had everything falling into place for them. Kohli and the Impact Player Faf du Plessis shared a grand opening stand of 137, but the Punjab bowlers squeezed down on the run flow in the middle over and paid the price in the spinner's 17th over.
Du Plessis lost his breath at 84 in the penultimate over, putting the load on Dinesh Karthik, Mahipal Lomror and Shahbaz Ahmed's shoulders to finish off well.
Alas, in the end, Bangalore could only get a mere score of 174-4, thanks to Punjab's tight bowling.
 "Arjun Bhalla")
