Bengaluru: It was a thumping homecoming for the Royal Challengers Bangalore as they opened their IPL 2023 campaign with a phenomenal win over the Mumbai Indians. Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli led the charge with the bat, piling misery on Mumbai after RCB restricted them to a modest total of 171.
Virat Kohli stayed unbeaten till the end as he was the one to deal the winning blow, smashing a 49-ball 82* that featured six fours and five sixes. Scoring at a breezy rate of 167.35 after somewhat of an anchoring knock to Faf’s blitz at the other end, Kohli ensured that RCB suffered no late stutter as he calmly helped the Challengers across the finish line.
Talking at the post-match conference, Virat Kohli explained how this homecoming was very special to him and how his opening partnership with Faf du Plessis panned out so effortlessly. Virat said, “Phenomenal win. Homecoming after so many years. Credit to their batsmen for getting to that score. Tilak batted well. We kept backing ourselves. Faf went first, and I joined later.
"I am very happy with how things went today. The new ball was a bit tricky, but we shifted the momentum by taking them down with the new ball. We nullified all their intensity. The wicket was quite a nice one. We hit good areas and kept putting pressure on the bowlers.”
He also talked about the home crowd, adding, “Phenomenal, was a packed crowd. Every seat was full and we knew we would get a lot of support. We just ride off that intensity from the crowd. They were right behind us.”
He finally concluded by talking about Karn Sharma’s fiery spell, stating, “He was phenomenal, when he got that left-hander out, that was great bowling. He was bowling so well last year. He was ready to play. Even in the nets, he was not getting hit for sixes. He put us on the front foot right away.
"The first game of the IPL, and to perform like that was great. Apart from Mumbai winning five times and Chennai four times, we have qualified the most number of times, so we do play consistent cricket. It's just about staying focused, and just trying to be the best-balanced team. We need to play on this momentum. We just need to execute better.” (UNI)