IPL 2023: Virat-Faf pair is RCB's biggest success story this season

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opening duo of Virat Kohli and Faf Du Plessis on Sunday became the pair with the joint-highest partnership runs in a single season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opening duo of Virat Kohli and Faf Du Plessis on Sunday became the pair with the joint-highest partnership runs in a single season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They reached this milestone during their side's IPL 2023 match against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Sunday at Bengaluru.

The duo continued their consistent run in IPL 2023, putting up a stand of 67 runs for the first wicket before skipper Faf Du Plessis was dismissed by Noor Ahmed for 28 runs. With this, the duo's run tally as an opening duo soared to 939 runs this season, the joint-most by any pair, let alone an opening pair in the history of this league. They have three centuries and five half-century stands this season.

The RCB duo of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers also had 939 runs as a pair in the 2016 edition of the IPL. Besides this, in IPL 2019 for Sunrisers Hyderabad, David Warner and Jonny Bairstow had 791 as a pair. They were instrumental in SRH's success in the team's peak years.

CSK's Faf Du Plessis (now playing for RCB) and Ruturaj Gaikwad also had 756 runs as a pair in the 2021 season of the IPL for the four-time champions. Kohli-Faf also hold the record for most 50-run-plus partnerships in a single IPL season. They have a total of eight such partnerships this season, including three century and five half-century stands. They outdid the pair of Virat and De Villiers, who had seven fifty-run-plus stands in IPL 2016.

They also reached the milestone of scoring more than 1000 runs as an opening stand in IPL history. They added a total of 318 runs in 12 innings as a pair in the 2022 season, including two fifty and one century partnerships. Put to bat first by GT, RCB posted a total of 197/5 in their 20 overs. Opening the batting, Virat Kohli had a 67-run opening stand with skipper Faf Du Plessis (28 in 19 balls). Useful cameos came from Michael Bracewell (26 in 16 balls) and Anuj Rawat (23* in 15 balls) as well. But it was Virat who stood tall with his second straight century of the season, his seventh overall. He scored 101* in just 61 balls, consisting of 13 fours and a six.

Noor Ahmed (2/39) in his four overs was the pick of the bowlers for GT. Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami and Yash Dayal took a wicket each. In the chase of 198, GT lost Wriddhiman Saha early, but a 123-run stand for the second wicket between Shubman Gill and Vijay Shankar (53 in 35 balls, seven fours and two sixes) brought them back into the game. RCB attempted to make a comeback with some wickets towards the end, but Gill hit the match-winning runs to bring up his second successive IPL ton as well. He scored 104* in 52 balls with five fours and eight sixes. GT chased down the target with five balls to go.

RCB end their campaign in sixth position with seven wins, seven losses and a total of 14 points. GT will be playing CSK in the first qualifier on Tuesday. Gill clinched the 'Player of the Match' for his knock. (ANI)

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