[WATCH] Venkatesh Iyer takes a blinder to dismiss Virat Kohli in RCB vs KKR IPL 2023 clash

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) stand-in captain Virat Kohli perished after reaching his half-century against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) while trying to hit a big shot against Andre Russell on Wednesday, April 26.

RCB and KKR squared off in the 36th match of IPL 2023 tonight at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. KKR batted first in the contest and reached a daunting total of 200/5 on the back of decent contributions from top-order batters.

Faf du Plessis (17 off 7 balls) and Virat Kohli (54 off 37 balls) then gave RCB a blazing start with their 31-run partnership in 2.1 overs before Suyash Sharma dismissed Du Plessis. RCB kept losing wickets at regular intervals after that, but Virat Kohli kept going at a brisk pace at the other end to keep his side in the hunt.

Mahipal Lomror (34 off 18 balls) played a nice cameo to support Kohli for a while. Varun Chakaravarthy cut short his stay at the crease by sending him to the pavilion in the 12th over. Kohli also departed in the very next over, mounting RCB's problems in the chase. His firm pull shot went flat towards Venkatesh Iyer near the mid-wicket boundary, who took to a superb diving catch.

You can watch the dismissal in the video below:

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RCB's lower middle order collapsed after Virat Kohli's dismissal

RCB were 115/5 in 12.1 overs when Kohli got out after a fluent half-century. Dinesh Karthik (22) and Suyash Prabhudessai (10) hit a few boundaries and put on a 22-run partnership. However, an unfortunate run-out separated the duo and derailed the home team's innings in the 15th over.

Varun Chakaravarthy then delivered a defining blow to RCB by dismissing Dinesh Karthik in the 18th over. It was a formality after that, as RCB crawled to 179/8 in 20 overs and lost the match by 21 runs.