Starting their season on a perfect note, Royal Challengers Bangalore produced a stellar show in front of their home fans at a packed M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday night.
The stars of the show were Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis as they struck scintillating half-centuries in an eight-wicket win against Mumbai Indians in what was their first game of IPL 2023.
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Kohli was RCB’s top-scorer with an unbeaten 82 while Du Plessis made 73 as the franchise chased down the target of 172 in just 16.2 overs. However, the foundations for their impressive show were laid long before during the MI innings thanks to their bowlers including Mohammed Siraj and legspinner Karn Sharma.
While Siraj bowled three overs for just five runs and the scalp of Ishan Kishan in the Powerplay, Karn landed two vital breakthroughs just when it looked MI will blast away to a big total.
Playing in his first IPL match after a gap of two years, Karn first broke the 50-run stand between Nehal Wadhera and Tilak Varma by getting rid of the former on 21. And in his next over, sent back dangerman Tim David cheaply on 7.
Kohli was all praise for the 35-year-old who finished with figures of 2/32.
“I think he (Karn) was phenomenal, phenomenal spell from him, that’s brave bowling after getting the left-hander out. He was bowling so well for us last year but he couldn’t play," Kohli said.
He added, “Even in the nets he was not getting hit for sixes, hats off to him for coming and playing after so long, to perform against such a strong MI side at the Chinnaswamy is great for him."
Overall, Karn has taken 61 wickets in his IPL career so far at 26.92 and an economy of 7.91. He has earlier represented the likes of Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the T20 league.
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