Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli set the Chinnaswamy Stadium ablaze with their batting supremacy as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) by 8 wickets in their campaign opener on Sunday. The duo made the chase of 172 look easy with a 148-run partnership for the opening wicket. In due course, Du Plessis scored a 47-ball 72, with the help of 5 boundaries and 4 sixes. On the other hand, Virat Kohli returned unbeaten on 82 off just 49 deliveries. With this stunning victory, RCB got placed in the third position on the points table with a net run rate of +1.981.
IPL 2023: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians – HIGHLIGHTS
For the first time in the history of IPL, the Du Plessis-Kohli pair was batting together for RCB, that too, at Chinnaswamy. The target of 172 did look challenging but these two stars of international cricket made it a kid’s play. They started hammering the Mumbai attack and brought the fifty-run stand by the end of the powerplay.
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They carried on assaulting the MI bowlers and brought up their respective half-centuries as well. Faf got to the milestone of just 29 deliveries while Kohli notched his fifty in 38 balls.
A 10-wicket win was almost on the cards for the RCB but Arshad Khan struck in the 15th over and got the better of Faf du Plessis to break the colossal 148-run stand. As Dinesh Karthik walked in next, the spectators thought of a quick finish. But before the veteran wicketkeeper-batter could open his account, he was dismissed by Cameron Green for a three-ball duck.
Glenn Maxwell was the next man in who pacified the situation with a couple of sixes while Kohli smashed the winning runs, taking RCB home pretty safely.
Earlier, Tilak Varma batted with aplomb, smashing a scintillating fifty to single-handedly power Mumbai Indians to a competitive 171 for seven against RCB. Sent in to bat, five-time champions MI had a poor start but Varma, coming off a successful last season, delivered the goods as he held the innings together with an unbeaten 46-ball 84-run knock.
Pushed into batting first, Mumbai crumbled to 48/4 and then to 123/7 at one stage, looking in danger of being shot out for a below-par total. But Varma stood tall and impressed everyone with his skill and temperament in hitting nine boundaries and four sixes at a strike-rate of 182.6, as Mumbai got 69 runs from the last five overs.
RCB bowlers had reduced MI to 20 for three in 5.2 overs after skipper Faf du Plessis opted to bowl but Varma played a lone hand, adding 50 and 48 with Nehal Wadhera (21) and Arshad Khan (15 not out) for the fifth and eighth wickets respectively.
Wadhera showed his big-hitting skills with back-to-back maximums off Karn Sharma but the bowler had the last laugh as the batter was caught by Virat Kohli as MI reached 99 for five in 14 overs.
Meanwhile, Siraj, who had figures of 3-0-5-1 after three overs, bowled the 19th over, sending down five wides and conceding two fours as MI reached 149 for seven following the 16-run over.
(With Agency Inputs)
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