Finally Virat Kohli led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) scripted their first win in IPL 2019 breaking their streak of six straight defeats to emerge triumphant in the battle against Kings XI Punjab at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. Well, it was sort of a familiar scene in RCB's emphatic eight-wicket win as the formidable pair of Kohli and AB de Villiers combined to subdue the scintillating 99* from Chris Gayle. And with their stellar 85-run partnership, the RCB Batsmen became the most prolific pairs in IPL history.
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While Skipper Kohli scored 67 off 53 , de Villiers played unbeaten knock of 59 off 38 in RCB's comfortable win over KXIP. The stitched 85 runs from 70 deliveries to revive RCB after the early departure of Parthiv Patel. And en route in the partnership, Kohli and De Villiers amassed 2793 runs in IPL in becoming the leading run-scoring pair in the history of the tournament. The duo surpassed the tally of 2787 runs amassed by Kohli and Gayle.
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Kohli said, "Great feeling to get across the line. Have been unlucky in couple of games. Won't say we've been unlucky in every game, but a couple of games we should've closed out before this. After so many setbacks, the guys had desire. That's one word we spoke about. We thought 190 will be par and to restrict them to 170 was a great effort. To pick up 4 wickets in 8 overs in the middle for 60 runs was an outstanding effort. We knew Chris was going to bat deep. So many opportunities to get dot balls. We knew if we bowled decently to him, we might restrict them.”