Faf du Plessis, leading Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), hit runs swiftly in their IPL 2024 match against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). The contest took place at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 15th. RCB chased a massive 288-run target. The responsibility fell on du Plessis to give his team a rapid start. The right-handed batter achieved this goal, forging a crucial 80-run partnership off 38 balls alongside Virat Kohli.
Even after Kohli was dismissed in the seventh over, the RCB skipper resumed his attack. He faced his SRH rival, Pat Cummins, in the tenth over of the run chase.
Du Plessis welcomed Cummins, who was bowling his second over, with a four and a six in the first two deliveries. However, the SRH seamer had the last laugh when he used a bouncer to dismiss the well-set batsman.
The 39-year-old died after he got a slight edge while attempting to play the hook. The ball’s slowness and additional bounce got to him. Interestingly, the leg umpire marked it as wide, but the main umpire picked up the edge and ruled it out.
Watch the footage of the duel between Faf du Plessis and Pat Cummins below:
Faf du Plessis retired after a solid 62. RCB did not go down without a fight throughout the match, scoring 262/7. They suffered their sixth consecutive loss of the season, this time by 25 runs.
“There’s no way to hide when your confidence is low” – Faf du Plessis opens up on RCB’s 28-run loss to SRH
During the post-match presentation, Faf du Plessis was delighted with the team’s batting performance while chasing a record target. He did, however, point out that the team’s fast bowlers failed to get going on the surface.
Du Plessis made the following suggestions about what Bengaluru should focus on in order to turn things around:
“Much better (batting performance) from us, that was a proper t20 wicket. Just tried to get close in the end, but 280 was very far. It’s tough. We tried a few things, we tried different things. There’s no way to hide when your confidence is low. The fast bowlers found it quite difficult out there. Similar to the batting perspective, we need to work on few areas. Need to make sure the run rate doesn’t go down after powerplay.”
Faf du Plessis
Faf du Plessis added:
“The guys put up their hand and never gave up (in the run chase). It was good to see the fight, 30-40 runs from the bowling perspective was a bit too much. It’s important to go away and freshen your mind, it’s such a mental game. Sometimes you feel your mind is going to explode. When you get back to the contest you have to give full commitment.”
Faf du Plessis
With just one win from seven games, RCB is at the bottom of the IPL 2024 points table.