IPL 2023 RCB vs MI: Du Plessis, Kohli Demolish MI As RCB Register Thumping 8-Wicket Win
IPL 2023 RCB vs MI: Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis hit scintillating half-centuries as Royal Challengers Bangalore marked their homecoming with a dominating eight-wicket win over Mumbai Indians.
The win was set up by Royal Challengers’ bowlers. After inserting Mumbai in, du Plessis used seven of them; except Glenn Maxwell who bowled just one over, everyone else picked up at least one wicket.
That Mumbai could post 171 for 7 in itself was an achievement. After 15 overs, they were 102 for 5 but Tilak Varma‘s magnificent 84 not out off 46 balls gave them something to fight with. The 20-year-old decorated his knock with nine boundaries and four sixes.
IPL 2023 RCB vs MI: Skipper, Former Skipper Destroy MI single-handedly
RCB’s innings panned out completely differently. The Challengers openers pressed on the pedal from the onset of the chase and guided them to a comfortable win.
RCB Skipper Faf du Plessis along with opening partner Virat Kohli put up a massive partnership of 148 from just 89 deliveries to put the Challengers in control. MI Skipper Rohit Sharma was left clueless as boundaries rained during the second innings at the Chinnaswamy stadium.
Both openers scored in tandem as they made a statement in their opening game of the season. This was Kohli and Du Plessis’s third 100-run partnership.
Kohli remained unbeaten at 82* off 49 balls while Faf smashed 73 off 43 balls as RCB chased down the target in just 16.2 overs. For MI, Cameron Green and Arshad Khan scalped one wicket each.
After du Plessis perished in the 15th over, Kohli completed the job, hitting a four and six off Arshad Khan to knock off the winning runs to hand MI their 11th consecutive defeat in their first match of the season.
MI brought in Jason Behrendorff in place of Suryakumar Yadav as their impact player but it didn’t work as he and his new-ball partner Arshad were taken to the cleaners by Kohli and du Plessis, racking up 30 in three overs.
Young Tilak Verma impressed one and all despite MI’s crash
Earlier, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley and Karn Sharma starred to reduce Mumbai to 123/7, after being 48/4 at one point. 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.
Despite wickets falling around, Varma continued to match forward. He began with a six over long-on off Deep which came right off the middle of the bat. When Harshal Patel pitched down leg, he came on top of the bounce to pull past short fine leg.
He reached his fifty in 32 balls with a terrific heave over deep square leg for six off Deep.
Varma pulled Harshal in the gap through square leg for four in the final over, before ending the innings with a helicopter shot to send a fuller delivery over long-on for six, as 22 runs came off the final over.
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