IPL 2016: SEASON 9
In the 19th match of the Indian Premier League tournament in Rajkot, Virat Kohli comes up with a master class, 100 not out off 63 balls to register his first ever T20 century but fails to carry his team Royal Challengers Bangalore to victory against the Gujarat Lions. After winning the toss, the Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to come up with a challenging score of 180 for the loss of just two wickets with captain Virat Kohli leading the way. Youngster Lokesh Rahul batted admirably to notch up 51 not out off 35 balls. However the Gujarat Lions gave a fitting response, all their batsmen came up with vital contributions, with Dinesh Karthik delivering the decisive punches with 50 of 39 balls as the Gujarat Lions neatly closed in on the RCB score and triumphed with three balls to spare. Virat Kohli received the Man of the Math award but that was little consolation for a man who would have given everything to register a win for his team.
In another match, the 20th of the IPL tournament, Kolkata Knight Riders beat MS Dhoni's Rising Pune Supergiants in Pune. After being put in to bat, the Rising Pune Supergiants struggled and stuttered throughout their innings, with Steven Smith taking too long to compile 31 and not going on to build a big innings, and only Ajinkya Rahane coming good with 67 off 52 balls. Dhoni smashed 23 runs off 12 balls but a total of 160 does not win you too many matches in the current T20 era, and so it turned out. Suryakumar Yadav played a steady knock of 60 off 49 balls for the Kolkata Knight Riders, Yusuf Pathan came up with a handy 36 off 27 balls, and though they suffered some anxious moments towards the finish, KKR were able to reach their target with three balls to spare. Suryakumar Yadav was declared the Man of the Match.