They say that the true signs of a fine batter include a still head, keen eyes on the ball till the last moment, a dash of balance and the willingness to adapt. Faf du Plessis incorporated all of that and added some more, call it royalty if you like, last night, in his phenomenal half-century that took the bones out of the chase.

Despite a late resurgence from the Titans, RCB managed to clinch a fine win, thanks to a late flourish from Dinesh Karthik and Swapnil Singh. But had it not been for the rampant start from the skipper, the situation could have been entirely different.

So how did it all start? It all started with a whimper. The first two balls faced by Faf went for just a solitary run. The symphony of destruction followed shortly thereafter. Joshua Little was being shredded into pieces as the RCB captain went all blasters blazing at the Irish quick.

Starting off with a shot behind square to smacking him straight down the ground in a regal manner, du Plessis garnered 20 runs off the second over. The madness though was just starting to unravel itself.

Next up in the long line of victims in the wake of Faf’s carnage was Manav Suthar. Prancing down the track, the RCB skipper deposited the debutant over long-on while ensuing that with a powerful slash that flew over point with a couple of bounces to the fence.

Mohit Sharma’s introduction could do very little to dampen the Protean opener’s spirit as he picked him up on the very first ball and sent him shrieking to the fence at jet speed. Sharma tried to fox his counterpart with a floater outside the off-stump but the RCB captain was in no mood to relent. Channeling the powers of his broad shoulders, Du Plessis whacked him through the covers.

Mohit still persisted with the idea of bowling slow to Faf and the latter was not buying any bit of the bait, In fact, he was willing to let himself flow on the tide of temptation as he picked up Mohit’s back-of-the-hand delivery perfectly and smashed him straight down the ground, eking out another four in the process. Change of pace in the final delivery didn’t do much good to Sharma either as du Plessis rocked the former with an exquisitely powerful cut shot to inch closer to his half-century.

Du Plessis brought up his half-century with a single against Suthar and got back to business in no time whatsoever, picking up Joshua Little again. Before getting out to the Irish quick, he hammered him for 14 runs that comprised a hard pull through mid-wicket, a ginormous strike down the ground and a razor-sharp cover drive.

Little finally had the last laugh as he bowled one into the surface, forcing Faf to pull away at that. Beaten for pace, the RCB captain ended up holing out to Shahrukh Khan at fine-leg. But by then, he had already dealt the telling blow, penning off the final verdict of the clash that needed a bit more coaxing in the end to be sealed.