“Fabulous Faf on Fire”: Vinay Kumar exults as Faf du Plessis smashes maiden half-century as RCB captain vs PBKS in IPL 2022

Vinay Kumar exults as Faf du Plessis powers RCB to huge total with a fantastic half-century on first match as RCB captain in the IPL.

During the third match of the ongoing 15^th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Dr DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, Faf du Plessis, playing his first match as newly inducted skipper of RCB, smashed a fantastic half-century after his team was invited to bat first.

Opening the batting alongside Delhi’s 22-year-old Southpaw Anuj Rawat (21 off 20), the duo failed to take on the PBKS pace attack upfront due to some disciplined display of seam and swing bowling, especially by Sandeep Sharma during the Powerplay.

Despite stitching together a 50-run stand for the first wicket, RCB were struggling a bit with only 78 on the board in 11 Overs with the wicket of Rawat down.

With Virat Kohli (41* off 29) alongside, Faf then decided to press the accelerator as he then smashed Liam Livingstone and then Odean Smith for 14 and 23 runs respectively to bring up his 23rd IPL fifty in 41 deliveries.

There was no stopping du Plessis from there on as he stitched together a scintillating 118-run stand alongside Kohli for the second wicket, to finally end his innings after scoring 88 off 57 deliveries with the assistance of 3 Fours and 7 massive Sixes.

Vinay Kumar exults as Faf du Plessis plays a stellar knock

Former India bowler, Vinay Kumar, who has also represented RCB from 2008-2010, took to his social media handle to praise the 37-year-old for his scintillating knock which has helped the team to cross the 200-run mark with an Over yet to go.

It is indeed a special day for du Plessis, as the former Proteas skipper is featuring in his 101st IPL match, while also surpassing over 3,000 runs in the coveted league after also playing for Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiants since 2012.