On his first day at work at the new office, Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis produced a stunning innings of 88 from 57 deliveries, to help drive his side to 205/2 against Punjab Kings. While Faf was busy destroying the Punjab bowling, Virat Kohli, at the other end, kept things moving at good pace too. The duo put on 118 runs of 61 deliveries, giving RCB’s innings some much needed momentum.
After Faf’s assault, it was Dinesh Karthik who continued in exactly the same manner, scoring an unbeaten 32 of 14, while Kohli remained 41 not out.
Batting first, skipper Faf du Plessis and Anuj Rawat were keen to start quickly and while the Indian batter looked the more aggressive, neither could really do much damage, as they found it tough to get the gaps initially.
After a powerplay which produced 41 runs for RCB, Rawat, who scored 21 of 20 deliveries, was the first to depart when Rahul Chahar cleaned him up, and the crowd cheered as Virat Kohli walked in.
Faf at the other end was taking his time to get going, but Kohli came out looking to attack right from the get-go, and broke the shackles when he smashed Harpreet Brar for six straight back over his head in the 10th over.
After 10 overs, RCB were 70/1, desperately in need of upping the ante in the second half of the innings to get a good score on the board. The batters switched gears, as Faf took the attack to the bowlers. Liam Livingstone’s first over went for 14 runs after which Odean Smith conceded 23, as Faf completed his half-century in the 13th over, having gone through gears very swiftly. Early in the innings in fact, Smith almost had Faf’s wicket when he was on 7 but Shahrukh Khan could not hold on to a tough chance at midwicket, which was proving to be quite costly.
In came Harpreet Brar at the other end in the 14th over, his third, and got hammered for three sixes in a 21-run over, as RCB’s run-rate improved dramatically, and the platform was set for a big score. Both batters were scoring at a fast rate, stepping down the track with great confidence to find the big hits.
Rahul Chahar bowled out in the next over and finished with figures of 1/22 in his four overs, with RCB looking to tee off in the last five overs with the score at 142/1. Midway through the 16th over, Faf’s sixth six brought up the century stand between him and Kohli, with neither quite ready to let up yet. He ended the over with another six, and inched closer to a century, as Punjab looked to be in deep trouble.
Of the first delivery in the 18th over, Arshdeep Singh struck, giving Punjab a much-needed breakthrough, when Faf was caught by Shahrukh at long off for 88. Faf’s brutal assault saw him smash 7 sixes and 3 boundaries.
Dinesh Karthik joined Kohli in the middle, and after a surprisingly quite 18th over, the new man started off the 19th with a six over fine leg of Odean Smith. Karthik then hammered him for another four and six. It was more of the same from Karthik in the final over as well, after Kohli handed him the strike after the first delivery. Karthik took 14 off that over as RCB posted 205/2 with Punjab conceding 135 runs in the last 10 overs.
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