Royal Challengers Bengaluru star batter Virat Kohli gifted his willow to Kolkata Knight Riders' Rinku Singh after the IPL 2024 match between two teams at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday, March 29.
KKR became the first team to end a home team winning streak in the ongoing IPL season with a seven-wicket win over RCB. With a target of 183, Kolkata Knight Riders pulled off the chase with 3.5 overs to spare. Ventakesh Iyer (50), Sunil Narine (47) and skipper Shreyas Iyer (39) contributed significantly team's run-chase.
After the match, players from both teams met each other and exchanged handshakes to congratulate each other. Kolkata Knight Riders players went to Royal Challengers Bengaluru's dressing room to exchange pleasantries. In a video shared by RCB on its X handle (formerly Twitter), head coach Andy Flower was giving a dressing room speech to the players after the loss.
In that video, the cameraman captured Virat Kohli gifting his bat to Rinku Singh as a gesture of sportsmanship and camaraderie and the two hugged each other.
Virat Kohli played a brilliant unbeaten innings of 83 off 51 balls to help Royal Challengers Bengaluru post a respectable total of 182/6 in 20 overs on the board. However, talismanic batter's effort went in vain as RCB lost the second match of the ongoing IPL season.
This was Virat Kohli's second consecutive half-century in the IPL 2024. Earlier, the 35-year-old played a match-winning knock of 77 off 49 balls at a strike rate of 157.16 to help Royal Challengers Bengaluru chase down the target of 177 in 19.2 overs.
Virat Kohli is currently the Orange Cap holder of IPL 2024, with 181 runs, including two fifties, at an average 90.50 and a strike rate of 141 in 3 innings so far. The star batter was the highest run-scorer for RCB in the last IPL season, amassing 639 runs, including 2 centuries and 6 fifties, at an average of 53.25 in 14 matches.
