After Virat Kohli’s viral celebration in front of Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer following Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s win in Chandigarh, the franchise’s social media handle joined the former captain in hitting back at the hosts. Two days after losing the rain-marred home encounter, RCB avenged the defeat on Sunday as they beat Punjab by seven wickets.
Two years ago, Kohli collaborated with the Norwegian dance group Quick Style for a short dance video that instantly went viral on social media. After Punjab beat RCB on Friday at the Chinnaswamy, in a match that was reduced to 14-overs-a-side following rain in Bengaluru, social media influencers working with PBKS, posted a parody clip of that same dance video and shared it on their account.
On Sunday, after RCB won the return leg of the fixture, their social media handle hit back posting the original dance clip. They captioned it: “Every masterpiece has a copy. Stick to the original. Enjoy. #PlayBold”
Kohli named ‘Player of the Match’ in RCB’s win
In the chase of 158, the visitors lost opener Phil Salt in the first over to Arshdeep Singh. But RCB bounced back, riding on the second-wicket partnership of 103 runs between Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal. En route, Kohli scripted a piece of history after notching up his fourth half-century of the season. He surpassed Australia’s David Warner for the most 50-plus scores in IPL history. Kohli made it past the 50-mark 67 times, including eight centuries.
Earlier, Bengaluru spinners Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma took two wickets each as they helped restrict Punjab to 157-6.
“Very important game for us,” said player of the match Kohli. “When you go from eight (points) to 10, it makes a massive difference.”
Kohli on his anchor role said: “One partnership is good enough in T20 cricket during run chase. I can accelerate, but I want to understand the strengths of other players. Holding one end up at the moment, that’s working for us.”
This was Bengaluru’s fifth-straight win on the trot away from home. All three of their defeats this season came at the Chinnaswamy. They stand third on the points table with 10 points from eight matches.
