Twitter Reactions: PBKS' powerhitters play spoilsport in Faf du Plessis' IPL captaincy debut

Punjab Kings have started their IPL 2022 campaign with a successful high-scoring run-chase against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. If it was Faf du Plessis for the RCB with a brilliant 88-run knock, PBKS put up a collective effort with the bat to chase down a massive total of 206 runs and notch up their first win of the season.

Earlier, vintage RCB was back even without AB de Villiers as his former South Africa teammate Faf du Plessis taking over the reins with the bat. The newly-minted RCB skipper struggled to get going and was on 17 off 30 deliveries at one stage. However, he began playing his shots at will in the second half of the innings and ended up smacking seven sixes.

Du Plessis stitched a sensational partnership of 118 runs in just 10.1 overs with former skipper Virat Kohli. The latter also batted well on the day but was overshadowed by the brilliance of his captain. Faf continued his consistent run in the IPL, scoring 88 of 57 balls, while RCB’s new finisher Dinesh Karthik came out and provided excellent finishing touches to the innings.

Kohli didn’t get much of a strike at the back end of the innings but was happy watching some amazing sixes being hit. RCB lost only two wickets in their entire innings and ended up on 205 runs,. For PBKS, Rahul Chahar was impressive in his four-over spell, conceding only 22 runs and picking up Anuj Rawat’s wicket.

A collective chase from PBKS

The 206-run chase was never going to be easy but the PBKS’s new opening pair of Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan got the team off to a brilliant start. They took the attack to Mohammed Siraj as the bowler lost his plot completely, conceding 29 runs off his first two overs. Just when they were running away with the 71-run stand, Wanindu Hasaranga struck off his very first ball much to the delight of the RCB fans.

Shahbaz Ahmed took a good low catch at square leg as Mayank Agarwal failed to keep the ball down while playing a pull shot. But the runs continued to flow with Bhanuka Rajapaksa coming out and playing a blinder. He took on his Sri Lanka teammate on the opposite side to smack for sixes at will. Shikhar Dhawan also continued his good run in the IPL, making sure PBKS managed the required run-rate very well.

At 139/2 after 13 overs, things looked gloomy for RCB but Siraj struck gold in his second spell. He first dismissed Rajapaksa and then sent back Raj Bawa off the very next delivery. Liam Livingstone’s wait to score big in the IPL continued, and suddenly RCB were the favourites. However, little did they know that Odean Smith would come out and smack almost each ball.

While Shahrukh Khan struggled to connect the ball from the word go, Smith just marauded the ball at will hitting 25* off just 8 balls with a four and three sixes to his name. Shahrukh also found his groove soon and the duo finished the game with an over to spare. It was a perfect run-chase with most of the batters contributing to the team’s success.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: