Cricket fans around the world got a glimpse of Virat Kohli, the captain, yet again as he stood for Royal Challengers Bangalore's regular skipper Faf du Plessis, who is nursing an injury, in an IPL 2023 match against Punjab Kings in Mohali on Thursday. And the match turned out to be a sweet one for RCB as they won by 24 runs. Kohli, who has been the skipper of RCB and the Indian cricket team in the past, scored a half-century and also impressed with his DRS calls.
In the first over, PBKS Atharva Taide opener was adjudged not out by the umpire after an LBW appeal by Mohammed Siraj. Kohli immediately went for a review and the decision was overturned. Then in the fourth over, again by Siraj, Kohli again took a DRS after PBKS' Liam Livingstone was adjudged not out over an LBW appeal. And, yet again Kohli was right and the decision had to be overturned.
Twitter users were impressed.
Talking about the match, Faf du Plessis played a special knock despite a rib injury before Mohammed Siraj produced his best figures in the IPL to set up a 24-run win for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Punjab Kings on Thursday. Playing as an 'Impact Player' due to his injury, Du Plessis plundered 84 off 56 balls and shared a 137-run opening wicket stand with stand-in captain Virat Kohli (59 off 47) to steer RCB to 174 for four after being put in to bat.
Though in-form skipper Shikhar Dhawan was unavailable for the second game in a row, Punjab had enough firepower to chase down 175 but lost too many wickets at the start of the chase.
Siraj delivered with wickets with the new ball as well as in the death overs to end up with 4/21 in four overs and secure a welcome victory for his team. Jitesh Sharma's counter-attacking 41 off 27 for Punjab went in vain.
It was RCB's third win in six games while Punjab suffered their third loss in six matches.