MUMBAI: Virat Kohli smashed an unbeaten 73 and Rohit Sharma struck form with 76 not out in match-winning knocks for Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Mumbai Indians in an IPL super Sunday.
The in-form Kohli hit his fourth half-century of this edition of the popular T20 tournament to anchor Bengaluru’s chase of 158 in a seven-wicket win over Punjab Kings at Mullanpur, near Chandigarh.
Another Indian veteran Rohit struck form with his first fifty this season in the second match of the day to lead Mumbai’s nine-wicket hammering of Chennai Super Kings in a battle of heavyweights.
Rohit, 37, put on 114 runs with Suryakumar Yadav, who hit 68 off 30 balls, as they steered the five-time champions’ chase of 177, getting there with 26 balls to spare.
Rohit, 37, came in as impact substitute in the chase and put on 63 with Ryan Rickleton, who fell for 24 off Ravindra Jadeja, to lay the foundations of Mumbai’s third straight win.
“After being here for such a long period of time, it’s easy to start doubting yourself and start doing different things,” Rohit said after being named player of the match.
“For me, it was important to do simple things and have a clear mindset. It was important for me to hold my shape and extend my arms, and when the ball was in my area, I had to do what I have been doing.”
Rohit struggled for form until this knock with just 82 runs in his previous six innings but found his groove with trademark flicks and pulls.
He reached his fifty in 33 balls but Suryakumar was in a hurry and his knock included some audacious shots behind the wicket raised his half-ton in 26 deliveries.
Rohit and Suryakumar smashed 11 sixes between them.
Bowlers set up victory after Jasprit Bumrah’s 2-25 and spinner Mitchell Santner’s 1-14 kept Chennai down to 176-5.
Shivam Dube, who made 50, and Jadeja, who hit an unbeaten 53, put on 79 runs for the fourth wicket and 17-year-old Ayush Mhatre smashed 32 off 15 balls after being the youngest player to debut for Chennai.
Five-time winners Chennai, led by M.S. Dhoni after regular skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad pulled out injured mid-season, crashed to their sixth defeat in eight matches to stay bottom of the 10-team table.
In the first match of the day, Bengaluru were propelled by a 103-run second-wicket stand between Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal, who hit 61, to reach their target with seven balls to spare.
Bengaluru avenged their loss to Punjab at home on Friday and the two teams, both seeking their first IPL title, are level on points.
“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.”
The in-form Kohli, 36, struck his fourth half-ton of the season and surpassed Australia’s David Warner for the most 50-plus scores in the popular T20 tournament.
Kohli has now made it past the 50-mark 67 times, including eight centuries.
Left-handed Padikkal struck his first fifty of the season, after Bengaluru lost opener Phil Salt in the first over to Arshdeep Singh.
Padikkal fell to Harpreet Brar, leaving Kohli to play the anchor in a 54-ball knock laced with seven fours and a six.
Bengaluru spinners Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma took two wickets each to set up victory as they helped restrict Punjab to 157-6.
Kohli, Rohit star as Bengaluru and Mumbai win in IPL
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Kohli, Rohit star as Bengaluru and Mumbai win in IPL
- Bengaluru avenged their loss to Punjab at home on Friday and the two teams, both seeking their first IPL title, are level on points
Pakistan-born Australian Khawaja, set to retire from cricket, criticizes racial stereotypes
- Usman Khawaja said he felt he was treated ‘a little bit different, even to now,’ because of his Pakistan and Muslim background
- Khawaja was criticized in the days leading up to the Perth match for golfing twice, not taking part in an optional training session
Veteran Australia batter Usman Khawaja has announced he will retire from international cricket after the fifth Ashes test beginning Sunday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
He didn’t go quietly.
The Pakistan-born Khawaja, who was the first Muslim to play for Australia, used his retirement announcement Friday to criticize the “racial” stereotyping he experienced during his career.
It will be the 39-year-old Khawaja’s 88th and final test — played at the ground where he began his first-class career. Khawaja scored his first Ashes century at the SCG with 171 against England in 2018.
It was also at that the SCG where he revived his career at age 35, scoring two centuries against England. That prompted one of the great late-career revivals, as Khawaja hit seven centuries in his next two years back in the side.
But Khawaja’s position had come under scrutiny and criticism this season after being unable to open in the first Ashes test in Perth due to back spasms and then missing the Brisbane test with the injury.
He was then initially left out in Adelaide until Steve Smith’s vertigo allowed Khawaja to return, before an 82 in the first innings there ensured he would stay in the side for the fourth test in Melbourne. Australia, with a 3-1 lead going into the fifth test, has retained the Ashes.
Khawaja said he felt he was treated “a little bit different, even to now,” because of his Pakistan and Muslim background.
“Different in the way I’ve been treated, different in how things have happened,” he said at a media conference in Sydney. “I had back spasms, it was something I couldn’t control. The way the media and the past players came out and attacked me . . . I copped it for about five days straight. Everyone was piling in.
“Once the racial stereotypes came in, of me being lazy, it was things I’ve dealt with my whole life. Pakistani, West Indian, colored players...we’re selfish, we only care about ourselves, we don’t care about the team, we don’t train hard enough.”
Khawaja was criticized in the days leading up to the Perth match for golfing twice and not taking part in an optional training session. Some commentators suggested the golf might have been responsible for his back issues.
“I can give you countless number of guys who have played golf the day before a match and have been injured, but you guys haven’t said a thing,” Khawaja told the assembled media.
“I can give you even more examples of guys who have had 15 schooners (large glasses of beer) the night before a game and have then been injured, but no one said a word because they were just being ‘Aussie larrikins,’ they were just being lads. But when I get injured, everyone went at my credibility and who I am as a person.”
Khawaja said he knew the end of his career was imminent.
“I guess moving into this series, I had an inkling this would be the last series,” he said. “I’m glad I can go out on my own terms.”
Khawaja has scored 6,206 runs at an average of 43.49 in his 87 tests with 16 centuries and 28 half-centuries.
“Usman has made a huge contribution to Australian cricket both through his outstanding achievements as one of our most stylish and resilient batters . . . and off field, particularly through the Usman Khawaja Foundation,” Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg said in a statement.
“Usman has been one of Australia’s most reliable opening batters and testament to his success was him being named ICC test cricketer of the year the same season that Australia won the World Test Championship (in 2023).”
Khawaja said his No. 1 emotion on announcing his retirement was “contentment.”
“I’m very lucky to have played so many games for Australia the way I have,” Khawaja said. “I hope I have inspired people along the way.”
