It was finally nice to bat with Virat than playing against him: Faf du Plessis on Virat Kohli

The Royal Challengers Bangalore were handed a bitter pill to swallow in the IPL opener as they were edged past by the Punjab Kings in a revelry of runs. Captain Faf led the lines for RCB with a blistering 88 from 57 balls while Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik hammered home the necessary storms to leave a mountain to climb for Punjab.

However, with a decent sequence of power-hitters in their ranks, they managed to get the job done at the expense of two of RCB’s most seasoned campaigners, Mohammed Siraj and Harshal Patel. However, being just the season opener, the team knows that there is a long way to go and one victory doesn’t really define the course of the tournament.

Faf du Plessis took to the mic in the latest episode of RCB Bold Diaries and talked about how he is confident of the Challengers bouncing back against the Kolkata Knight Riders. He was heard quoting, “Obviously losing the toss is going to be a factor, especially in the beginning part of the competition. Everyone is going to decide to have and bowl first.”

Talking about the Punjab game he quoted, “The first three and four overs were tricky. We stayed composed. I am glad that we had a 50-run partnership in the opening game of the season. It is really good for the confidence from an opening pair’s partnership. Then the way we kept it going till the last was unbelievable. Virat timed his innings perfectly and played a great contribution in our hundred run partnership. It was always something very special.”

He also talked about the feelings of playing with Virat, citing, “It was finally nice to bat with Virat than playing against him. The planning was really good. DK came up with some amazing intensity. With the ball, I thing we did a lot of things pretty well. As I said, the conditions will get wet. So, there are lesser chances for the team bowling second.”

RCB will be up against Kolkata Knight Riders for their second game of the contest at the DY Patil which will witness a prolonged rivalry over the span of the last 15 years coming back to life.