Royal Challengers Bangalore got off to a winning start in TATA IPL 2023 as they beat Mumbai Indians by eight wickets in Match 5 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
Faf du Plessis (73 off 43) and Virat Kohli (82* off 49 balls) set the stage on fire with a 148-run (off 89 balls) opening stand as they helped RCB chase down 172 after Tilak Varma’s sensational counter-attacking innings had propelled MI to 171/7.
Chasing 172, RCB openers Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli got their team off to a flier. Du Plessis went after Behrendorff in the third over as she crunched a four through covers, thumped a six over deep mid-wicket and then lofted the next one straight down the ground for consecutive sixes to make it 16 runs off the over.
Kohli looked to attack Jofra Archer straightaway as he hit one back uppishly but Archer couldn’t hold on to a touch chance. Kohli then guided one through backward point for a four and then charged down the track and hammered a slower one over long off for a six. He then smacked a pull over mid-wicket off Archer in his next over as RCB reached 53/0 at the end of the Powerplay.
After a quiet over, Du Plessis took the attack to Green as he hit a couple of fours and a six to make it a 17-run over.
Faf then went after Hrithik Shokeen and hit him for consecutive sixes to bring up his fifty off just 29 balls. RCB reached 97/0 at the halfway stage.
Kohli tonked a six off Chawla to bring up the 100-run stand and then brought up his fifty off 38 balls.
Rohit brought back Behrendorff in search of a wicket but Kohli and du Plessis took him to the cleaners with two fours and a six, accumulating 16 off the over. Kohli kept taking the aggressive approach against Archer as he pulled one into the stands to bring the equation down to 33 off 36.
Kohli smashed Arshad for a six but was then dropped off the next ball by Shokeen at deep mid-wicket. MI finally got their first breakthrough as Arshad had Du Plessis (73 off 43) caught at long on off a slower one. Green sent back Karthik for a duck in the next over. Maxwell though was in a hurry to finish it off as he cracked consecutive sixes off the same Green over. And fittingly, Kohli finishes it off with a four and a six as RCB cruised to a 8-wicket win and 22 balls to spare. Kohli remained unbeaten on 82 off 49 balls.
Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to bowl. They named David Willey, Sonu Yadav, Mahipal Lomror, Suyash Prabhudessai and Anuj Rawat as their substitutes. MI named Jason Behrendorff, Vishnu Vinod, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani and Sandeep Warrier as their substitutes.
Mohd. Siraj got the early breakthrough for RCB as he had Ishan Kishan caught at third man in the third over. He had bowled a tight first over, giving away just two runs. Kishan then opened up and hit a couple of fours off David Willey. Siraj, who was bowling with energy and verve struck in his next over as he sent back Kishan.
Cameron Green opened his boundary account, cracking one through covers off Topley. However, a ball later, Topley hit back hard and cleaned up Green with a superb yorker.
Siraj could have had the big wicket of Rohit inside the powerplay as the MI captain top-edged a pull but a miscommunication between Siraj who charged to take the catch and Dinesh Karthik who also went for the catch meant that both collided and the ball fell in between them. Rohit couldn’t ride his luck for long though as he edged one to the keeper off Akash Deep in the next over. Tilak Verma released some pressure with a thumping six over long on off Akash Deep as MI reached 29/3 at the end of the Powerplay.
Siraj bowled a brilliant first spell of 3-0-5-1 in the Powerplay.
RCB then received a blow as Topley had to go off the field after injuring his shoulder trying to make a diving stop. Their bowlers kept the runs in check and it brought another wicket as Suryakumar Yadav (15 off 16 balls) cut one straight to the backward point fielder off Michael Bracewell after smacking a four off the earlier ball.
MI reached 55/4 at the half-way mark.
Tilak Varma then pressed the accelerator button as he hammered a four off Bracewell and then took on Maxwell for a six and a four. Nehal Wadhera too upped the ante as he hit consecutive sixes off Karn Sharma to bring up the 50-run stand with Varma off just 30 balls. Karn though hit back hard and had Wadhera caught at long on off the next ball to break the partnership. RCB pulled things back a bit and Karn Sharma then got a huge wicket as he cleaned up Tim David (4 off 7). Tilak Varma though went from strength to strength as he smacked a pull over deep mid-wicket for a six off Akash Deep to bring up his fifty off 32 balls. MI lost Hrithik Shokeen but Varma seemed to be batting on a different surface as he played some cracking strokes. Varma along with Arshad Khan provided the final flourish as MI scored 60 off the last four overs. Varma smashed a couple of fours off Siraj in the penultimate over and the pair hit 22 off the last over as Varma finished the innings off in style with a six to propel MI to 171/7. Varma remained unbeaten on 84 off 46 balls with nine fours and four sixes.
Mumbai Indians introduced Jason Behrendorff as their Impact Substitute replacing Suryakumar Yadav at the start of their bowling innings.
