Tags: Indian T20 League 2023,
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians, 5th Match at Bengaluru, Apr 02, 2023,
Bangalore XI,
Mumbai XI,
Francois du Plessis,
Virat Kohli
Published on: Apr 03, 2023
Scorecard
| Commentary
| Graphs
Virat Kohli (82 not out off 49) and Faf du Plessis (73 off 43) featured in a fantastic opening stand of 148 in 14.5 overs as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) hammered Mumbai Indians (MI) by eight wickets at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday, April 2. Chasing 172 for victory, Bangalore got home in 16.2 overs as Kohli and Du Plessis went absolutely berserk.
RCB captain Du Plessis struck five fours and six sixes in his fantastic knock, while Kohli clubbed six fours and five maximums. The duo looked in complete control out in the middle. While Du Plessis was the aggressive partner in the stand, Kohli took over after his captain perished. At one stage, it looked as if Bangalore would win by 10 wickets. However, MI had some consolation when Du Plessis fell to Arshad Khan and Dinesh Karthik was dismissed for a duck by Cameron Green. Kohli and Glenn Maxwell (12* off 3) then took the team home.
Earlier, Mumbai recovered from a poor start to post 171/7. Rohit Sharma (1), Ishan Kishan (10), Cameron Green (5) and Suryakumar Yadav (15) all fell cheaply as MI were reduced to 48/4. Tilak Varma, however, played a superb knock to lift Mumbai. He struck an unbeaten 84 off 46 balls, smashing nine fours and four sixes. Varma and Nehal Wadhera (21 off 13) added 50 runs for the fifth wicket. Varma played some terrific strokes at the end, but his knock was in vain.
Speaking after being named Player of the Match, RCB captain Du Plessis said it was nice to start the way they did. He elaborated, “In the powerplay, Siraj had the tail up and he set the tone. Right through the innings, our bowlers stuck to the plans. Obviously last 2-3 overs something to improve on. And that second innings, if you want to know how to chase a target, well, that’s how you do it. If you took pace off the ball, it wasn’t too easy to play and there was something in it for the spinners but as a batter if you got into good positions you could score runs.”
On his experience of playing at the Chinnaswamy Stadium as a home player, he added, “My first time playing here as a home player and it’s a special player, especially batting with Virat Kohli. Energy bounces off him. You have to stay with the youngsters, I still work hard to be able to move around like I could in the young days. The confidence this gives, all of us are confidence players. This start will be huge for us as a team.”
–By A Cricket Correspondent
