Venkatesh Iyer scored his first half-century for RCBImage Credit source: PTI
Current champion Royal Challengers Bangalore continued their strong batting streak in IPL 2026 and once again scored a big score. In the playoff race against Punjab Kings, Bengaluru, batting first, scored a strong score of 222 runs. Once again Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal scored a lot of runs for Bengaluru but this time the star of the innings was Venkatesh Iyer, who scored a half-century for the first time for his new team.
This match started on Sunday afternoon of 17th May in Dharamshala. Bengaluru Came out to bat first. For that, once again Virat Kohli (58) scored an excellent half-century, while Padikkal (45) came close to it and was out. Captain Rajat Patidar was not a part of this match, so his teammate Venkatesh Iyer in Madhya Pradesh cricket team was sent at number four this time and this move worked.
Venkatesh’s first fifty for RCB
However, Venkatesh had a very slow start and he could score only 9 runs in the first 11 balls. But after this the left-handed batsman attacked and it proved impossible for Punjab to stop him. Venkatesh completed his half-century in just 29 balls and even after this it rained boundaries from his bat. Ultimately Venkatesh returned unbeaten after scoring 73 runs in just 40 balls, which included 8 fours and 4 sixes. This season, Venkatesh got a chance to bat only for the third time and he showed his strength.
This innings was very special for Venkatesh and RCB because the team had put all its efforts for this player in two consecutive auctions. During last season’s auction, RCB had bid up to Rs 23 crore but still they were not able to buy Venkatesh. But before this season, he signed Venkatesh for just Rs 7 crore.
Bengaluru made world record
Apart from this innings of Venkatesh, Tim David also played an inning of 28 runs in 12 balls in the last few balls. On this basis, RCB scored 222 runs and thus became the franchise or club to cross the 200 mark most times in T20 cricket. In domestic cricket or league, RCB now has the maximum score of more than 200 runs in an innings 44 times. The team broke CSK’s record. If we look overall, the Indian team is at the forefront, which has done this 50 times.
