Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Faf du Plessis was delighted after their four-wicket win against Gujarat Titans at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Saturday. RCB continued their winning impetus as they won with 38 balls to spare and boosted their Net Run Rate.
After winning the toss, RCB was able to bundle out GT for a meager score of 147 runs. Mohammed Siraj was right on the money in the Powerplay overs, removing Wriddhiman Saha and GT captain Shubman Gill.
Cameron Green then accounted for in-form Sai Sudharsan as GT was left reeling at 19-3 after 5.3 overs. David Miller added 61 runs with Shahrukh Khan but both of them were also dismissed one after the other as GT kept losing wickets from there onwards.
On the other hand, RCB got off to a flying start with Virat Kohli smashing a six on the second ball he faced after surviving a run-out chance on the first ball of the innings. Faf du Plessis followed suit and the RCB captain also scored the second-fastest fifty for the franchise, getting to the milestone off just 18 balls.
Faf du Plessis said in the post-match presentation, “ We’ve been really good in the last few games, with both bat and ball. We’ve been unbelievable in the field as well. The wicket was a bit different, there was a bit more bounce. Wanted to make sure we take that information from the pitch and give it to the bowlers.”
Faf scored 63 runs off just 23 balls whereas Kohli scored 42 off 27 balls. However, RCB lost six wickets for 25 runs but eventually got over the line with Dinesh Karthik and Swapnil Singh scoring 21 and 15 runs respectively.
He added, “Yes there was a dropped catch but it’s the effort that we look for and that was there throughout. The games we’ve played here have all been high-scoring, anything around 180-190 would’ve been par. Was important we didn’t look at the scoreboard when we went out to bat and try and play the way we play. Was a bit nervous. Probably not the best assessment from us there. Yes we wanted to go out there and get the total quickly to boost the NRR but probably when we were 4 down, we had to calm down a little bit.”
Royal Challengers Bengaluru will next take on Punjab Kings at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala on Thursday.
