Kohli-du Plessis down SRH as RCB retain control over playoffs fate

Putting some parity into the recent trend of teams failing to chase stiff targets after opting to field, Royal Challengers Bangalore beat hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets on Thursday to keep their hopes of reaching the IPL 2023 playoffs very much intact.

Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli, RCB’s two form batsmen, put on a clinical display of risk-free cricket as well as impeccable timing, to chase down Hyderabad’s 186/4 in the last over of the match. Their alliance of 172 in 17.5 overs is the highest of the season, and in the process Kohli and du Plessis became the most successful opening pair in the IPL’s 16-year existence. Kohli’s 63-ball 100 drew him level with former RCB team-mate Chris Gayle for the most centuries in the IPL (six), while the Orange Cap holder du Plessis scored his eighth fifty of the season to get 126 runs clear of the next best batsman.

This emphatic victory over SRH takes RCB to 14 points, and sets up the last match of the league stage on Sunday as the potential decider of which team becomes the fourth and final to enter the playoffs.

When du Plessis won the toss and opted to field, you wondered if for the third evening in a row – following on from Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan – to make the wrong call in a must-win match. Despite two wickets to Michael Bracewell in the fifth over of the game, SRH were powered to a good total thanks chiefly to their most successful batsman of the season, Heinrich Klaasen, who hit eight fours and six sixes in his 51-ball 104.

The in-form wicketkeeper-batsman wasted no time in setting his intent for all to see, striking his first ball faced into the covers for four. Three more fours in the next over established Klaasen’s mood, and by the time Aiden Markram collected his 11^th run, his partner was 38 from 18 deliveries. Klaasen needed 24 balls for his third 50-plus score of the season, which he converted in dazzling manner into a first IPL hundred. But unfortunately for SRH, no one apart from the returning Harry Brook (27* off 19 balls) offered any support.

Klaasen’s innings came against tidier bowling than what RCB’s openers faced during the chase, and it is a pity that this century became a footnote in this match once Kohli dominated with his own hundred.

Kohli came into this match with six fifties in the tournament and played overall percentage, risk-free cricket to get to three figures for the first time in four seasons. He was the early aggressor, using his crease and a solid stride forward to cash in one some errant lines from the RCB bowlers. He steered the first two balls of the chase past point for boundaries, then took on Abhishek Sharma’s left-arm spin for two more in the second over.

Then du Plessis took over with five fours and a six in the span of six deliveries, and after five overs the scoreboard read 59 for no loss. Du Plessis continued to move about his crease to target the square boundaries, while Kohli, as he grew in confidence, swatted a 103-metre six. Within quick time the outcome of the match became obvious.

At the end of the 14^th over, which ended with du Plessis heaving Abhishek into the second tier, the two openers were on 63 and 65 respectively. Then Kohli took four fours off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the next over, and not long after his fourth six gave him his hundred from 62 balls. Both RCB openers fell within moments, but their 172-run partnership had taken care of the result.