Gill trumps Kohli as RCB eliminated, putting MI into the playoffs

The final day of the league stage of IPL 2023 was the day we would come to know who the fourth playoff team was. While Royal

Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians needed to win their respective final fixtures on Sunday, Rajasthan Royals were hopeful of both these teams losing.

And what a day of cricket we had. Rain threatened to ruin the evening match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, while in Mumbai the sun beat down on the two afternoon teams. Three centuries in two games, each of a high quality. Two of them delivered wins while chasing, one of them was a record seventh in the IPL to Virat Kohli, whose excellence was left behind by Shubman Gill.

Let’s start in sequential order. Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to field, as he does, and set a target of 201 to beat SRH, the home team finished the job with two overs left courtesy a first IPL hundred from Cameron Green who hit 100* off 47 deliveries. Rohit contributed 56 off 37 balls which was his first second half-century of the season and first in ten innings.

Hyderabad rallied to put up 200/5 riding on an opening stand worth 140 in 13.5 overs between the returning Mayank Agarwal (83 off 46 balls) and Vivrant Sharma (69 off 47) but some good work in the last few overs shaved off several runs from the predicted total. Ishan Kishan once again fell cheaply but Rohit and Green forged an alliance of 128 in 61 balls to hasten a victory that improved, albeit slightly, Mumbai’s net run rate. This result knocked Rajasthan out of the race.

Southwards in Karnataka, hosts RCB were chomping at the bit to get the last match of the league stage started, given that Mumbai’s defeat had left them sure of what was needed to move past them into the playoffs. The Chinnaswamy groundstaff did tremendously to get the outfield and pitch ready for play, and the match started just under an hour late, but no overs were lost.

Put into bat by Hardik Pandya, RCB made 197/5 on the back of another excellent opening partnership and Kohli’s 101* off 61 deliveries. The pitch remained surprisingly dry despite the steady drizzle since the afternoon, and Kohli and Faf du Plessis took toll of the back of movement. Mohammed Shami was hit for 22 in his first two overs and Yash Daywal conceded 21 in his two, of which 17 came in the fourth over with Kohli hitting three fours and du Plessis one. The openers added 67 in seven overs, before du Plessis was dismissed by Noor Ahmad for 28 off 19 deliveries.

Enter Glenn Maxwell at one-down with the license to hit, and hit he did. His second ball faced was dumped into the stands behind long-on and the second slapped past extra cover, but five balls was all Maxwell lasted. His first ball from Rashid Khan skidded past the bat and hit the stumps to leave RCB at 80/2 in the ninth over.

Moments later, Mahipal Lomror lost his balance to a delivery from Noor that slipped down the leg side, and was stumped swiftly by Wriddhiman Saha. The wobble was on.

Kohli duly collected his eighth score of 50 or more this season and batted on a different level as his team-mates to become the first batsman with seven IPL centuries, following his match-winning hundred versus SRH with this one to lift hopes of RCB fans.

But on the night, Gill was two shades better than Kohli. The heir apparent to India’s captaincy smacked five fours and eight sixes in a terrific 104* off 52 balls (a strike-rate of 200) to power GT over the finish line in 19.1 overs. His partner in a stand of 123 for the second wicket was Vijay Shankar with 53 off 35 balls.

Thus, RCB were eliminated and MI became the final team to seal passage into the IPL 2023 playoffs. They will meet Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator on May 24.