Virat Kohli continued on his domineering form and spanked Anrich Nortje for two stunning boundaries to start off the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Delhi Capitals at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Given the success of chasing teams at this venue, DC skipper David Warner won the toss and elected to bowl first. This, though, delighted the crowd as they would get to see Virat Kohli bat first.
In the hot afternoon in Bangalore, Virat came out with intent and purpose, and showed it right away against one of the fastest bowlers in the world, Nortje.
On the second ball of the innings, Kohli got off the mark in style, driving Nortje on the up. The batter gave the ball that was just outside off stump a proper thump and it flew over mid-on. On the next ball, this time Nortje pitched it slightly shorter, Virat stood and drove it over cover point. No chance for the fielder as the ball flew over him and Kohli got off to a rolling start.
Watch: Virat Kohli thumps Nortje for two fours in 1st over
Virat Kohli reaches another half-century
The 34-year-old ex-RCB captain has got into some form at the start of the IPL 2023 as he smoked his 3rd half-century of the season in 4 innings. Virat scored 50 runs off 34 balls with the help of 6 gorgeous boundaries and one disdainful sixer to Mustafizur.
Kohli was indeed very animated, pumped up and aggressive in his celebration of his half-century and looked destined for a big one. However, soonafter reaching his fifty, he hit a full toss from Lalit Yadav straight to the deep mid-wicket fielder.
RCB vs DC Teams
DC (Playing XI): David Warner(c), Mitchell Marsh, Yash Dhull, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Aman Hakim Khan, Lalit Yadav, Abishek Porel(w), Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Mustafizur Rahman
RCB (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj, Vijaykumar Vyshak
DC Subs: Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar, Praveen Dubey, Sarfaraz Khan, Chetan Sakariya
RCB Subs: Suyash Prabhudessai, David Willey, Akash Deep, Karn Sharma, Anuj Rawat
