What a way for RCB to start their campaign. They did not even need an Impact Player, such was their dominance. Hemant is working hard on his report, which should be up yet. The caravan rolls and we have Chennai Super Kings taking on Lucknow Super Giants tomorrow. Till then, this is Ashish Pant, signing off on behalf of Hemant, Ranjith and Raghav. Good night!
Faf du Plessis is the Player of the Match: It was a nice way to start the way we did in the powerplay. Siraj with his tail up is a beautiful thing. The bowler stuck to their task The last two or three overs, was a bit of learning. The cutters were working really well, it was not easy to hit the ball. There was value for your shots. Credit to the groundsman. Even the spinners found something. [On the crowd] It's awesome to play. It's my first time playing here as a home player, especially batting with Virat Kohli. [Fielding] You have to try and stay with the youngsters. I try and push the old hamstrings so that I can move in the field. To start the campaign with a bang, was huge.
Presentation time
Virat Kohli: Phenomenal win. Homecoming after so many years. Credit to their batters for getting to that score. Tilak batted well. We kept backing ourselves. Faf went first, and I joined later. I am very happy with how things went today. The new ball was a bit tricky, but we shifted the momentum by taking them down with the new ball. We nullified all their intensity. The wicket was quite a nice one. We hit good areas and kept putting pressure on the bowlers. [Crowd] Phenomenal, was a packed crowd. Every seat was full and we knew we would get a lot of support. We just ride off that intensity from the crowd They were right behind us. [On Karn Sharma] He was phenomenal, when he got that left-hander out, that was great bowling. He was bowling so well last year. He was ready to play. Even in the nets, he was not getting hit for sixes. He put us on the front foot right away. The first game of the IPL, and to perform like that was great. Apart from Mumbai winning five times and Chennai four times, we have qualified the most number of times, so we do play consistent cricket. It's just about staying focused, and just try to be the best balanced team. We need to play on this momentum. We just need to execute better.
Rohit Sharma: Didn't have a great start but was a good effort from Tilak at the end. But the bowlers didn't bowl well. We didn't bat good enough, it was a good pitch. [On Tilak] Some of the shorts he played today, he showed a lot of courage. We wanted to be courageous enough, and hats off to Tilak for getting us to the total. Was a good pitch to bat on. We did not bat to our potential. 30-40 runs would have been ideal. We were struggling t play the catch-up game. [No Bumrah] For the past six-eight months I am used to play without Bumrah. We can't control things which we can't control. The other guys are also talented. A lot of the guys haven't played IPL before. First game of the season, lot to look forward to.
Afeef: "A perfect return to the Chinnaswamy "
Shrikant : "I liked the move to send DK though it has not worked out. RCB is keeping an eye on NRR early on "
Neeraj : "Kohi wanted his own 'finishes off in style' moment..."
11.08pm Everything that could have gone right for RCB, did. Everything that could have wrong for Mumbai, did. Think that's the best way to put. Mumbai, bar Tilak Varma were all over the place, and still got to 171. But RCB openers, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis just showed how good a surface that was. The duo added 148 runs off 89 balls to set-up the chase. Kohli remained unbeaten on 82 off 49, while du Plessis scored 73 off 43. RCB mopped up the win in just 16.2 overs and that will give their net run-rate a boost.
