Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis hailed Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill for their magnificent centuries on Sunday in an Indian Premier League contest. RCB’s Kohli slammed a record 7th IPL century to give his team a fighting chance by helping them post 197/5 while batting first against Gujarat Titans.
However, Gill had some other plans he also scored a century in return to knockout RCB from the IPL 2023. It was a must-win game for RCB who were inconsistent throughout the season. The franchise banked on Kohli, Du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj to get positive results and lacked collective effort which resulted in the elimination before the playoffs stage.
Also Read: IPL 2023 Points Table After Group Stage
Talking about the defeat, Du Plessis hailed Gill for his magnificent knock but also blamed dew for their below-par bowling performance while defending the target.
“Very disappointed. We played a really strong team tonight, Shubman Gill, amazing hundred. It was really wet in the second innings. It was wet in the first innings, a lot of moisture so we changed the ball three times so there wasn’t a lot of grip,” Du Plessis said after the match.
Du Plessis admitted that Kohli gave RCB a fighting chance but Shubman take the game away from them.
“Virat played an unbelievable knock to give us a chance and thought that was a good score, but Shubman played incredibly well to take the game away from us,” he added.
Also Read: Virat Kohli Walks Off Injured in GT’s Win over RCB
While Du Plessis also reflected on the players’ performance this season and pointed out that they lacked consistency in the middle-order which hurt their campaign.
“From a batting perspective, the top 4 contributed really well. We missed a few runs from the middle order consistently throughout the season, especially in the back end of the innings, and also in the middle overs perhaps didn’t get as many wickets as we would have liked,” Du Plessis said.
The former South African captain said that Kohli’s sublime form was a big positive for the side this season.
“He (Kohli) played really good cricket throughout the season and as a partnership probably not a single game where we had anything under 40 as an opening combination,” he added.
He also pointed out that for the next season RCB need to find a finisher as Dinesh Karthik failed to replicate his performance from last year in IPL 2023.
“We need to improve well on finishing games especially in the back end. Last year DK had a purple patch and was finishing games left, right and centre, but this season it wasn’t to be. And if you see the teams that succeed they have some good hitters at five at six probably six and seven,” Du Plessis concluded.
Comments
0 comment