IPL 2023: Virat Kohli scores 82 not out to help Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Mumbai Indians
Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 82 as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated Mumbai Indians (MI) by eight wickets in their first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 tournament in Bangalore on Sunday.
After restricting Mumbai Indians to a total of 171/7 which was less as far as the ground conditions were concerned, Royal Challengers Bangalore produced a superb batting performance with Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis scoring half-centuries to help their team start off with a big victory in IPL 2023.
Mumbai Indians made a poor start to the tournament once again as their top order could not perform against the Royal Challengers bowling line-up. Mohammad Siraj dismissed Ishan Kishan for 10, Akash Deep took the big wicket of Rohit Sharma were one while the stupid reasons to dismiss Cameron Green for five.
The world number one T20 batsman Suryakumar Yadav could not make his presence felt in the first game of IPL 2023 as he was dismissed for this 15 from 16 balls with one four.
It was, however, due to a superb knock of 84 not out from just 46 balls from the young Mumbai Indians batsman Tilak Varma that Mumbai Indians were able to post a target of 171/saving in their 20 overs.
The left-handed aggressive batsman hit nine fours and four sixes to make a strong start to the competition while Nehal Wadhera made 21 from 13 balls. Towards the end of the innings, Arshad Khan made 15 not out from nine balls while the others such as Tim David (4) and Hrithik Shokeen (5) could not make big contributions.
Royal Challengers Bangalore made a strong start to the chase with Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis putting up a 148-run stand for the first wicket from 14.5 overs to make it a one-sided contest against the Mumbai Indians.
Virat Kohli remained not out on 82 from 49 balls with six fours and five sixes whereas Faf du Plessis hit six sixes and five boundaries to meet 73 runs from just 43 balls.
Among the other batsmen, Royal Challengers Bangalore wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik was dismissed for a three ball duck where as Glenn Maxwell was unbeaten on 12 from three balls with the help of two sixes as Royal Challengers Bangalore finished the chase in 16.2 overs with eight wickets in hand and 22 balls to spare.
For Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Akashdeep, Harshal Patel and Michael Bracewell took one wicket each whereas Karn Sharma took 2/32. While it was a forgettable day for the Mumbai Indians bowlers, Jofra Archer was particularly bad as he gave away 33 runs in his four overs without taking any wicket.
The young Mumbai Indians bowler Arshad Khan took one wicket for 28 runs in his 2.2 overs while Cameron Green also claimed one wicket for 30 runs in his two overs.
Mumbai Indians will be under pressure when they will face Chennai Super Kings over the weekend at the Wankhede Stadium since they have had a poor run in IPL since last year and the defeat in the opening match has added pressure on them.