IPL 2023: RCB Captain Faf du Plessis puts onus on middle order for not rising up to the occasion

CSK defeated Faf du Plessis-led RCB by 8 wickets in the Southern derby of IPL 2023.

It was a typical run feast at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Chennai Super Kings in a high scoring thrilling southern derby defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 8 runs. In a batting friendly wicket fans witnessed galore of sixes being hit by both teams. A Total of 33 sixes were hit during the course of 40 overs. CSK gave RCB 227 to chase, Devon Conway was the top scorer in the game with his 83 runs inning for CSK. He smashed 6 fours and 6 sixes. Along with Conway, Ajinkya Rahane (37) and Shivam Dube (52) also helped CSK put up 227 runs on the board. RCB in reply lost two early wickets but then the carnage came at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Captain Faf du Plessis accepts last 5 overs changed the game

RCB Captain Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell with their 126 runs partnership in 10 overs put CSK back in the drawing room to chart out Plan B. Faf with his inning of 62 became the leading run scorer in the IPL 2023. Maxwell scored 76 runs in 36 balls. Captain Faf later accepted that the middle order after the 3rd wicket partnership could have won the game for the team. He said, “The last five overs were set up well, I thought DK would clinch it but those last four overs we let it slip”. RCB after the third wicket continued to lose wickets at regular intervals.

MS Dhoni had a belief on Shivam Dube 'the batter'

With a superb batting performance, Chennai Super Kings got two important points in their kit bag. CSK captain MS Dhoni was happy with the team's batting and said, “When you come here, you know it’s a batting wicket and there is dew. You want to get extra runs but you don’t want to think too far. You want to get a par score”. Shivam Dube carried on his love story with RCB from IPL 2022 and smashed RCB bowlers out of the park. Praising him, MS Dhoni said, “Dube is a tall guy with good reach. He can hit the spinners… He needs to believe that he can score runs in the middle overs more than us because he has the talent”. Dube scored 52 runs in 27 balls with 5 sixes.

Unpredictability with Old school cricket brings success for Conway

Chennai Opener Devon Conway won the Player of the Match award for his magnificent inning of 83 runs. Devon was happy with his performance and said, “Been very happy with the way things went tonight, My recipe is simple, play good cricket shots and I do not want to be predictable, so will try to hit bowlers off their lengths”. Chennai with a win against RCB now have 6 points and are third in the points table.