IPL 2023: RCB’s Du Plessis, Kohli slam fourth fifty of season, stitch yet another century opening stand

Faf du Plessis continued his golden run of form with the bat in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) while Virat Kohli bounced back to form after a blip in his previous outing. The two slammed half-centuries and forged yet another solid opening stand for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) during their match against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Thursday.

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Du Plessis is currently going through a purple patch with the bat and further consolidated himself at the top of the batting charts with a solid 84 off 56 deliveries that contained five fours and as many sixes. The South African brought up his fourth half-century of the season, this one all the more impressive given he’s dealing with a rib injury that has forced him to hand the captaincy over to Kohli for this game.

Kohli, too, has been among the runs this season, having brought up three half-centuries this season before getting dismissed for 6 during the 227-run chase at home against Chennai Super Kings. The stand-in RCB captain, however, was back in business on Thursday with a 47-ball 59, forging a 137-run opening stand with du Plessis — their second century stand in six matches this season.

Kohli would ultimately get dismissed off Harpreet Brar’s bowling at the start of the 17th over, with wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma pulling off an excellent reaction catch behind the stumps. Brar would then remove Glenn Maxwell for a golden duck the very next ball, while du Plessis would fall 16 short of what would have been his maiden IPL hundred in the following over.

The Punjab Kings attack made an excellent comeback in the death overs to restrict Royal Challengers Bangalore to 174/4 after the latter appeared set to post a total in the range of 190-200 thanks to the solid opening partnership.

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