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Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis's glistening 148-run opening partnership for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) during their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 opening match against Mumbai Indians (MI) helped them chase down 172 runs in 16.2 overs. One spectator in the stands who witnessed Kohli's magical and unbeaten innings of 82 from 49 balls was none other than his former teammate AB de Villiers, who took to Instagram to laud the former RCB skipper but in a hilarious manner.
He uploaded a picture where Kohli was batting and he was standing at short leg. Sharing the picture on Instagram, the South African legend wrote, "When you're standing at short leg but know you're not in the game, cause this guy wasn't gonna edge any of them last night! Well played RCB."
"Hahaha," Kohli responded along with a love emoticon.
Meanwhile, RCB will hope to end their bad luck at the playoff stage of the IPL, having failed to win the trophy despite qualifying for the next round of the competition eight times. It was a brilliant start to the season in that respect, chasing down MI's target with 22 balls to spare. Kohli and Faf du Plessis played on for 14.5 overs to help RCB complete a comfortable run-chase.
After the brilliant victory, Kohli took the opportunity to remind critics of his team that after five-time champions MI and four-time champions CSK, the Royal Challengers have the third most number of appearances in the IPL playoffs.
"I wanted to mention this for a while - after MI who have 5 titles and CSK who have 4, if I'm not wrong, we are the third team to have qualified the most times to the playoffs - 8 times. Take one game at a time and try to be a balanced side which we are and we would look to execute our plans as we did tonight," he said.
Meanwhile, another RCB legend in Chris Gayle believes that Kohli can replicate the season he had in 2016 in the ongoing cash-rich edition.
"I am sure (signs are there), there is no pressure on Virat this year. We talked about it before the tournament. Me and AB. AB said 'Hey, he is hungry, there is no pressure'. We have seen the Virat that we saw in 2016 and this could be trouble for bowlers," Gayle told Jio Cinema.
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