Virat Kohli secretly plots Faf du Plessis' dismissal, signals for a catch; then grabs it himself in very next over
Virat Kohli plotted the dismissal of Faf du Plessis during RCB's match against Delhi Capitals on Sunday.
For long, Virat Kohli shared the dressing room with Faf du Plessis during the latter's time with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Kohli opened the innings alongside Faf during their time together at RCB, and justifiably knows the South African's batting approach. And so, when Faf – now with Delhi Capitals – returned to face his former franchise RCB during Sunday night's match in Delhi, Kohli didn't shy from sharing some insider tips for the bowlers to plan Faf's wicket.
Kohli was captured on broadcast cameras gesturing towards the bowler that Faf is unlikely to play the sweep shot, and also made a catching gesture. Interestingly, in the very next over, Kohli grabbed the catch at long-on to help dismiss Faf.
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Faf returned to the DC XI after missing a few matches for the side due to an illness. However, the South African looked far from threatening throughout his stay at the crease, scoring at a strike rate of less than 100 throughout the Powerplay. Faf struggled to get going throughout his innings and was eventually dismissed by Krunal Pandya for just 22 off 26 deliveries. However, Abhishek Porel gave DC an electrifying start, racing to 26 off merely 11 balls before being dismissed by Josh Hazlewood.
The Australian, relentless with his hard lengths, took three balls to get the breakthrough as he cramped Porel to have him caught behind down the leg side.
Karun Nair, who began with a short arm pull off Hazlewood for a boundary, played an ordinary shot off Yash Dayal in the following over, and his mishit was pouched at mid-wicket.
The spinners came into operation after the powerplay, and overs 7-10 were the phase when RCB were able to stem the flow of runs. They conceded just 20 runs off the four overs from Suyash Sharma and Krunal Pandya, who got rid of du Plessis in that period.
DC only gained some momentum towards the end of the innings, thanks to Tristan Stubbs's (34) blitzkrieg.
The 18th and 19th over from Hazlewood and Dayal yielded 17 and 19 runs, enabling DC to cross the 160-run mark.
KL Rahul was DC's highest run-scorer in their innings, scoring 41; however, he faced 39 deliveries to reach the score.
