In the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on March 3, Sunday, Royal Challengers Bangalore made an incredible start to their IPL season against five-time champions Mumbai Indians by putting on a chasing masterclass with a 148-run opening partnership from Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis.
RCB won by eight wickets with to aggressive half-centuries from Kohli and du Plessis. In order to lay the groundwork for the chase, which RCB completed in 16.2 overs, Faf hit 73 off 43 balls as Kohli continued to bat unbeaten at 82 off 49 balls. Fans have been anticipating this concert for a while now. They not only won the game handily, but they also mercilessly ended it. Virat finally hit a huge six to end the game. With 22 balls left, they successfully defended 172.
But, MI still have a lot of work to do. Simply put, that bowling attack doesn't seem dangerous. Indians in Mumbai still experience some of the same issues. Jofra Archer had a lackluster IPL performance, while the rest of their bowlers lacked any significant bite. Their top-order is also still struggling. Surya started but was unable to get going, and Ishan and Rohit had another difficult day. Tilak Varma, who actually played a brilliant innings to give Mumbai a highly competitive score after the first innings, is the lone bright spot.
The first game of the season saw MI suffer their 11th straight loss, while RCB won for the fifth time in their last six meetings with MI.
With this 50th 50-plus score in the IPL, Virat became the first Indian cricketer to ever accomplish the remarkable accomplishment. David Warner, the opening player for the Delhi Capitals, tops the record with 60. Shikhar Dhawan, the captain of the Punjab Kings, ranks third overall on the list with 49. Now, Kohli has 45 fifty-sevens and five hundreds to his credit.
Following the game, Kohli tweeted, "Friendship ended with ABD, now Faf is my new bestie." The connection between Kohli and ABD is unbreakable, so this is all just for fun.
On May 4, 2016, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers tied a record 229 runs together against the Gujarat Lions at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium. In his 52-ball 129-run innings, AB de Villiers hit 12 sixes and 10 fours. The captain also contributed to the assault, striking his third IPL hundred. The heroic effort enabled RCB to win by a whopping 144 runs.
Now that it's Kohli-Faf time, RCB supporters are hoping for a trophy at least this time, and the chant "E sathi cup namde" is still in use.
