IPL 2024 live blog - Rain arrives after RCB make strong start

While we wait for Punjab Kings' response, our experts pick apart RCB's innings.

9m ago

RCB were 238 for 4 after 19, with Cameron Green on 45 off 25 and Dinesh Karthik on 18 off 6.

Then Harshal bowls this over:

Three wickets, to put him two clear of Jasprit Bumrah for the purple cap stakes. (Harshal has now got 20 wickets this season to Bumrah's 18.)

They were quality deliveries this over too. He got DK with a ball that hurried on to the batter, and which he could only miscue to long on. He took out Mahipal Lomror's off stump with a dipping slower ball. And last ball of the innings, he has Green caught athletically at long on too, Sam Curran running around to take a diving catch.

RCB will still be the happier team, you'd think. But Harshal has given Punjab Kings something to cheer.

27m ago

92 Runs Kohli and Green scored together, off 46 balls

Kohli slices an Arshdeep Singh delivery into the hands of Rilee Russouw at deep third. He goes eight short of what would have been a second century this season.

But RCB are still running hot. Cameron Green is striking it powerfully. Dinesh Karthik looks immediately comfortable at the crease. RCB are well placed to breach 250 here.

You can still mourn the Kohli wicket though.

42m ago

The man's been in spectacular touch today, the most recent of his pieces of genius a whippy wallop over cow corner off a Sam Curran slower ball.

The Dharamsala crowd is drinking it all up. "Kohli, Kohli, Kohli" is reverberating around the stadium.

56m ago

It's the sixth time Virat Kohli has crossed fifty this season. On this occasion he gets there he gets there with that vintage flick through midwicket, off the 32nd ball he has faced. It's been a classic Kohli innings, using his feet nicely, whipping his wrists beautifully through the ball, timing outstanding.

He's set them up for a big score. Can he finish?

1h ago

72 The no. of runs Patidar and Kohli put on together, off 32 balls.

Sam Curran bowls a full ball wide of off stump, Patidar reaches for it and nicks it to the keeper. But as he is walking off the field, the ground staff at Dharamsala rush on with the covers, because some rain has begun to fall.

Patidar contributed a mammoth 55 off 23 balls to this partnership, though. And it's largely thanks to him that RCB are nicely placed here.

1h ago

2h ago

Kaverappa has had three catches dropped off his bowling in three overs. Patidar is the latest RCB batter to be dropped by Harshal at deep fine leg on 0. Harshal throws his head back in disappointment. Poor Kaverappa.

Despite those lapses in the field, Kaverappa's powerplay figures are impressive: 3-0-20-2. Bowling with the new ball is his forte in domestic cricket for Karnataka across formats. He is also capable of reverse-swinging the old ball. Bengaluru huduga is doing the job for PBKS against RCB.

However, PBKS are leaking runs at the other end. RCB are 56 for 2 in six overs, with Kohli on 22 off 14 and Patidar 13 off eight.

Kaverappa bowls four on the trot and comes away with 4-0-36-2. On another day, he might have finished with four or five wickets.

2h ago

Kaverappa, the Karnataka seamer, has had to endure a long wait for his maiden IPL wicket. He was snapped up by PBKS for his base price of INR 20 lakh in the IPL 2022 auction. After being on the bench for two seasons, he finally got a chance this evening. He could've got Kohli for a duck in his very first over, but the batter was reprieved. In his next over, however, Kaverappa gets on the board in the IPL, having du Plessis hole out to the off-side sweeper. He bowls into the pitch, gets it to stick in the surface and draws a mis-hit from the RCB captain. Gone for nine off seven balls.

Oops! Kohli gets another life in Kaverappa's second over, with Rossouw dropping an even more difficult catch. The force of the shot ensures the ball bursts out of the hands of Rossouw at short extra cover.

Kohli has been dropped on 0 and 10. Can he capitalise on those chances in Dharamsala?

2h ago

Debutant V Kaverappa could’ve dismissed Virat Kohli for his first IPL wicket had Ashutosh Sharma not dropped a fairly difficult catch at point. Kaverappa found outswing, like he often does with the new ball in domestic cricket for Karnataka, but it didn’t translate into a wicket. Ashutosh runs back from point, gets into an unstable side-on position and drops a skier. Du Plessis then gets cracking with back-to-back fours through extra-cover

2h ago

542 No. of runs Virat Kohli has scored this season, with a strike rate of 148

Although RCB have been woeful again, Kohli has been a talisman, topping the league for some time now. It just hasn't been enough.

Here are the teams. If you haven't heard, Punjab Kings have chosen to bowl first.

RCB: F du Plessis*, V Kohli, WG Jacks, RM Patidar, MK Lomror, C Green, KD Karthik†, Swapnil Singh, KV Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, LH Ferguson

PBKS: JM Bairstow†, SM Curran*, Prabhsimran Singh, RR Rossouw, LS Livingstone, Shashank Singh, AR Sharma, RD Chahar, HV Patel, Arshdeep Singh, V Kaverappa.

Our experts look ahead to this encounter

4 No. of matches RCB and PBKS have won, out of 11 outings this seaons. Pathetic, no?

Hope you're all doing better than Royal Challngers Bangalore and Punjab Kings are in the IPL. Because, you know, they are essentially tied for last place at the moment.

We'll have our studio experts break down this clash for you in a bit.

Dinesh Karthik c Curran b Patel 18 (7b 1x4 2x6 10m) SR: 257.14

Mahipal Lomror b Patel 0 (2b 0x4 0x6 3m) SR: 0

Cameron Green c Curran b Patel 46 (27b 5x4 1x6 50m) SR: 170.37