Virat Kohli took up Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) captaincy once again in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match against Punjab Kings at the IS Bindra Stadium on Thursday (April 20). He took up the mantle after two years as RCB's regular skipper Faf Du Plessis picked up a rib injury against CSK and only came to bat on Thursday.
Kohli scripted history on his captaincy return for RCB. He achieved a unique feat of completing a century of 30-plus scores in the history of IPL. Kohli went on to score a brilliant 59 off 47 riding on five fours and a six with a strike rate of 125.53. Kohli notched his third fifty of the sixteenth season of the IPL and has so far amassed 264 runs in a total of six matches and is only behind Faf Du Plessis, who is leading the runs chart with 320 runs in six games and is also the holder of IPL 2023's Orange Cap. While opening with Kohli, Du Plessis also cracked 84 off 56 riding on five sixes and five fours in the match against PBKS to help RCB post a competitive score of 174/4.
Kohli and Du Plessis stitched together an opening partnership of 137 runs which is the highest for any wicket at Mohali in IPL.
However Harpreet Brar was the pick of the bowler for PBKS who dismissed Kohli and Glenn Maxwell (0) in back-to-back deliveries in the 17th overs. In the next over Du Plessis too walked back to pavilion as he holed out to Sam Curran off Nathan Ellis' ball.
Earlier, PBKS won the toss and elected to bowl first.
“Faf potentially can't be fielding today, so he'll be playing as a impact player, switching with Vyshak. We got to do what we wanted, we would have batted first, the pitch could get slow, some scruff marks will help the bowlers going deep into the game. Taking one game at a time, focusing on our own game, make the most of crunch situations, we haven't done that so far in the tournament. No other changes for us,” RCB's stand-in skipper Kohli said after the toss.
“We will bowl first, did well in the last game and we'll take some confidence, conditions will not change a lot. Shikhar is getting closer, but he'll miss out today. He's a quality player, but the younger lot will have to shape up, Livingstone is back and we have Ellis back in place of KG,” PBKS' stand-in skipper Curran said after winning the toss.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Suyash Prabhudessai, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj.
RCB impact substitutes - Vyshak Vijaykumar, David Willey, Karm Sharma, Akash Deep, Anuj Rawat
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.
PBKS impact substitutes - Prabhsimran Singh, Mohit Rathee, Shivam Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Sikandar Raza
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