Virat Kohli’s knock of 82 not out off 49 balls not only helped Royal Challengers Bangalore make a winning start to IPL 2023 by beating Mumbai Indians by eight wickets but also ruined Jofra Archer’s return to the cash-rich league on Sunday. Archer, one of the fastest and fiercest, pace bowlers in the world was playing his first game for Mumbai Indians and also his first in the IPL after 2020.
MI, looking at Archer’s worth, spent big on the pacer in the 2022 mega-auction despite him being unavailable for that year due to an injury. The RCB game became the comeback match for Archer as the Bengaluru franchise returned to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium after four years.
All of this made for a cracking contest as the fans waited with bated breath to watch Kohli take on tearaway pacer Archer.
The first round of the highly-anticipated contest easily belonged to Kohli who took Archer to the cleaners at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
In fact, Kohli was dropped by the Archer off his bowling on the very first ball that he bowled to the Indian batter. Kohli replied with a four to the backward point on the very next ball.
Overall, Kohli faced 17 balls bowled by Archer and scored 28 runs off them, including two fours and two sixes.
The first six was sent over long-off, making most of a slower ball, while the second one came with a pull shot over the deep square leg.
Kohli’s former teammate at RCB, Chris Gayle, praised the Indian batter for his match-winning knock against Mumbai and predicted bad times for bowlers in IPL 2023.
“I’m sure. There’s no pressure on Virat. We talked about him before the tournament, me and AB. AB said, ‘hey, he’s a bit hungry. There’s no pressure. And we have seen Virat in 2016. And this could be trouble for bowlers’. He got a brilliant start, 88 not out. There’s going to be carnage for bowlers in the days to come,” Gayle said on JioCinema.
Virat Kohli has hit 28 runs against Jofra Archer today, which is the most by a batter against Archer in a T20 game. #RCBvsMI #IPL2023
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) April 2, 2023
“It will help a lot. Fans have a big part to play in this as well. We had a home game after 4 years, and you have to prove something to the home fans as well. They have to make sure they’re happy.”
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