Artistry in motion: Kohli notches 52nd IPL fifty

Virat Kohlis skilful unbeaten fifty formed the foundation of Royal Challengers Bengalurus competitive 182 for six against Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL 2024 match on FridayKohli 83 59b 4x4 4x6 and Cameron Green 33 off 21b milked 65 runs off 42 balls for the second wicket the primary alliance in RCB innings as the home side produced a twofaced effort after being asked to bat first on a track that was on the slower sideAn archetypal Dinesh Karthik cameo 20 8b 3x6 added gravitas to the RCB total as usual towards the endSkipper Faf du Plessis went back early as the Royal Challengers captains attempt to scoop pacer Harshit Rana ended in the hands of Mitchell Starc inside the circleBut a period of stability followed as Kohli and Green kept RCB on the track with a busy stand that saw them reaching 61 for 1 in the Power Play segmentKohli dished out drives and lofts over covers a new addition to his batting sweeps and slogsweep to fetch his runs but the shot of the night was a swatflick off Starc that sailed for a sixIn fact no other shot really encapsulates Kohlis batting like the swatflick a child of his desire to find newer ways to sustain the domination of bowlersA simple snap of wrists and power emanating from a strong bottom hand can turn this traditionally gentle shot into a malevolent runmaking optionKohli brought his fifty in 36 balls whereas other batters except Green generally struggled for momentum and timingBut at the other end Green wasnt really bothered about such technical angles as his batting was all about brute powerAlso ReadCarnage Travis Head styleSunil Narine who was playing his 500th T20 match was given a hammering as Green took 15 runs off the spinners first over that included a sequence of 4 4 6 iquest a sweep slap past cover and a hoick over longonHowever the burgeoning alliance was snapped when Greens effort to play a pull off Andre Russell was the ball crashing on to his stumps as the ball kept a tad lowGlenn Maxwell who was dropped twice on 11 and 21 en route a 19ball 28 could not exploit the largesse of KKR fielders as his luck finally ran out against NarineA slash off the West Indian spinner ended in the hands of Rinku Singh at deep point and Maxwell had to depart after adding 42 runs for the third wicket with KohliRajat Patidar 3 4b seemed to be suffering from lack of confidence after his travails in the Test series against England and the righthander produced another vastly underwhelming knockBut at one end Kohli kept going even as the KKR bowlers adopted the paceoff strategy with excellent effect to slow down the proceedingsWith agency inputs