Royal Challengers Bangalore stand-in skipper Virat Kohli expects their regular skipper Faf du Plessis to be completely fit before their next away game against Lucknow Super Giants on Monday. The South African has been suffering from a rib injury since his game against Chennai Super Kings and has been used as an impact player in batting for RCB.
On the game against Kolkata Knight Riders, Virat Kohli once again walked into the toss for the Bangalore side and provided an update about the status of his skipper injury to the broadcaster. Speaking to Ravi Shastri, Kohli was hopeful of having Faf du Plessis fully fit before their next game.
“Faf will play the impact role again tonight. We are playing the same team as the last game. Hopefully, he will lead from the next game onwards but yeah tonight he will play the same role that he played in the last 2 games,” Virat Kohli said.
Winning in his 1st toss in three matches, Virat Kohli opted to bowl and made no changes in their playing 11 stating that it looks like a good pitch to batch and it would be a little easier to chase down if they can get one partnership in the chase.
Coming into the match, Kolkata Knight Riders were off to a flying start in the powerplay, with Jason Roy continuing his fine form for the Men in Purple, with them scoring 66-0 at the end of the powerplay. Virat Kohli-led side pulled back the momentum with their young pacer Vyshak Vijaykumar removing both openers in the 10th over.
KKR’s star of the season Venkatesh Iyer 31 (26) and Nitish Rana 48 (21) joined alongside to take on the RCB bowlers, with the KKR skipper dropped twice by Mohammed Siraj and Harshal Patel which proved costly for the home team. In the end, Rinku Singh and David Wiese played brilliant cameos to help the two-time post a total of 200-5 at the end of 20 overs.
With 201 runs to chase, RCB Openers took on the KKR pacers in the first two overs to score 30-0, with the KKR skipper bringing in the spin from both ends which paid off for the two-time champions, as they picked up the important wickets of Faf du Plessis, Shabaz Ahmed and Glenn Maxwell inside the powerplay.
RCB stand-in skipper Virat Kohli batted beautifully alongside young Mahipal Lomror to take them close to the victory, with both batters dismissed in the span of 5 balls to put their side in a struggling position. Their finisher Dinesh Karthik‘s poor performance continued with the bat as he could take on the KKR spinners before losing his wicket to Varun Chakravarthy in the 18th over.
The two-time champions have secured their second straight victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore as they were poor in the field and lost wickets in the packs to suffer their 4 loss in the league stage.
It Was Unexpected But Nothing Now I’m Used To – Virat Kohli
Speaking on captaining RCB, Virat Kohli said it was an unexpected one and reckons that planning has been perfect in the backroom which makes his job easier in the field, and said that few decisions are made instinctively in the field based on the match situations.
“It was unexpected but nothing now I’m used to. The planning has been great, and the guys are playing great cricket so it wasn’t difficult for me to step in and just handle things a little bit. I did a few things instinctively as well on the field which comes naturally, but it’s been good as the team has done well so far,” Kohli told the broadcaster.
Royal Challengers Bangalore will on the road for the next five games starting from Lucknow Super Giants on May 1 in Ekana Stadium Lucknow and will look to come back stronger to make themselves in the playoffs hunt in IPL 2023.