Virat Kohli schools Harpreet Brar: ‘Can you Let me breathe?’; PBKS player gets Glenn Maxwell next ball

Harpreet Brar belongs to the school of left-arm spinners who rush through their overs, often giving the batters very little time to settle in between balls. The Punjab Kings left-arm spinner was at it again. He left Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Virat Kohli catching his breath during an IPL 2024 match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday, quite literally. And this happened when Kohli was not even on strike.

During the 13th over of the RCB's chase against PBKS, Brar was about to bowl the first ball of the over to Glenn Maxwell. Just as Brar started to get near his delivery stride, Maxwell pulled out because he was not ready. At that moment, Kohli, who was at the non-striker's end, was heard saying: "Saans toh lene de (Can you let me breathe at least?)." Maxwell was seen sporting a smile while Brar walked back to his mark.

Virat Kohli and Harpreet Brar's banter during RCB vs PBKS IPL match

The smile on Maxwell's face, however, didn't last long at all. He was dismissed by Brar off the very next ball when the Australian tried to give himself room and hit the PBKS spinner over the off-side in-field but got an inside edge back onto his stumps. It was Brar's second bowled dismissal of the day. He accounted for Rajat Patidar in his previous over.

Brar finished with outstanding figures of (2/13) and he also took a wonderful catch at third man to send back Kohli who was threatening to take the game away from PBKS. But unfortunately, it was not enough for the Punjab-based franchise to make it two in a row in this season.

Chasing 177 for victory, RCB were in big trouble at 130/6 but Dinesh Karthik (28) and impact substitute Mahipal Lomror (17) steered the team home in an unbeaten stand of 48 off 18 balls.

Karthik hit two sixes and three fours including the winning boundary in his 10-ball knock. Bowlers set up victory with pace spearhead Mohammed Siraj and spinner Glenn Maxwell taking two wickets each to keep Punjab down to 176-6 despite skipper Shikhar Dhawan's 45.

Kohli, who missed India's 4-1 Test series victory over England because of the birth of his second child, then took charge after he was dropped on the second ball of the chase by Jonny Bairstow at first slip off Sam Curran.

He capitalised on the spill on nought and hit the left-handed Curran for four boundaries including three successive hits to set up the chase in the first over.

His flowing cover drives, flicks on the on side and behind-the-wicket hits raised the noise at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium as chants of "Kohli, Kohli" filled the air.

He raised his 51st IPL fifty in 31 balls and became the third batsman after Chris Gayle and David Warner to score his 100th 50-plus knock in T20 cricket.