Navi Mumbai: Captain Faf du Plessis’ played a brilliant knock of 96 runs to guide Royal Challengers Bangalore to 181/6 in 20 overs Lucknow Super Giants here at the Dr DY Patil Stadium.
Put into bat Royal Challengers Bangalore got off to the worst possible start as pacer Dushmantha Chameera first dismissed opener, Anuj Rawat, for 4 followed by the prized scalp of Virat Kohli who was dismissed for a golden duck to leave his side tottering at 7/2 in first over.
RCB skipper Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell took the attack to the opposition and batted aggressively to take the team’s total to 43/2 in five overs. Krunal Pandya then dismissed Maxwell who got out after scoring 23 off 11 balls to leave RCB at 44/3.
Suyash Prabhudessai walked in to bat with du Plessis and took the team’s total beyond the 50-run mark. Jason Holder was introduced into the attack and he dismissed Prabhudessai for 10 as RCB lost their fourth wicket for 62.
Shahbaz Ahmed came in to bat with du Plessis and batted aggressively to help RCB reach the triple-figure mark in 12 overs. Captain du Plessis notched up his half-century off 40 balls.
The 70-run partnership between Shahbaz and du Plessis was finally broken as Shahbaz was run out for 26. In form wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik joined his skipper and took RCB’s total beyond a 150-run knock.
Faf du Plessis’ batted brilliantly but missed out on his ton by just four runs as he was dismissed for 96 by Holder in the 20th over to guide RCB to 181 for 6 in 20 overs. Dinesh Karthik remained unbeaten on 13.
Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 181/6 (Faf du Plessis 96, Shahbaz Ahmed 26; Jason Holder 2/25, 2/31 ) vs Lucknow Super Giants.
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