Du Plessis (64 off 23 balls, 10 fours, 3 sixes) and Virat Kohli (42 off 27 balls, 2 fours, 4 sixes) showed their quality as they scored 92 runs in 35 balls for the opening wicket to take Royal Challengers beyond 148 Modest goals for the points, although there were some tense moments, mostly of their own making.
The victory moved RCB to seventh place with eight points from 11 games and mathematically still retains their hopes of making the playoffs.
Du Plessis and Kohli handled boundaries as the home team posted 92 runs in the powerplay, which included 10 fours and seven full runs.
Du Plessis and Kohli were harsh on all GT bowlers as the latter fell behind pacer Mohit Sharma for two sixes in the first over.
Du Plessis was in no mood to play the role of a helper and he bowled left-arm pacer Josh Little in the order of 4, 6, 4, 4 in the second over, resulting in a total of 20 runs.
Titans brought in left-arm spinner Manav Suthar, who was making his IPL debut, hoping to at least contain Kohli, but the strategy failed miserably.
The RCB talisman showed his increasing comfort with spin, knocking Sutar for two consecutive sixes.
Du Plessis left the punishing blade to Mohit, who he pushed for four in the fifth over, and the South African reached 50 in just 18 balls before losing Little.
RCB entered a struggling phase from then on and they lost centurions Will Jacks, Raja Patidhar between the sixth and tenth overs in their last game (Rajat Patidar), Glenn Maxwell (Glenn Maxwell) and Cameron Green (Cameron Green), only scored 20 points.
Little (4/45) and spinner Noor Ahmed (2/23) were the main culprits as RCB fell from 92 for 1 to 112 for 5.
Ahmed soon dismissed Kohli as RCB were reduced to 117 for six but Dinesh Karthik (21 not out, 12b) Remaining calm under pressure, RCB registered their fourth consecutive and third win of the season.
Before the RCB batsmen joined the team, their bowlers performed well in the supporting bowls to take the GT bowling to 147 runs.
There were a few good partnerships – 61 between David Miller and Shah Rukh Khan and 44 between Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan – but the Titans lacked A big innings or a position that would give them a firmer grip on the game.
In fact, even in the powerplay, they seemed visibly unable to pick up the pace as their top order batsmen struggled with RCB pacers Mohammad Siraj (2/29) and Yash Dayal (2/21) The fight took place and the latter held out for brilliant lengths.
GT hit just two fours in the Power Play, providing ample evidence of their struggles and the accuracy of RCB’s bowlers.
The Gujarat team’s Power Play three-point score of 23 points was the lowest in the division this season, mainly due to Siraj’s dominance at the front.
He wore out the out-of-form Wriddhiman Saha with a nice off-spin ball and the GT opener passed it to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps ).
Shubman Gill followed with an attempt to swoop towards the wide edge near Siraj to take the lead, eventually falling to Vysakh Vijayakumar at the back. ) hands.
Green picked up the third wicket for RCB in the powerplay when he dropped the in-form B Sai Sudharsan, whose weak pull near the body was caught by Kohli at mid-off.
Miller (30, 20b) and Shahrukh (37, 24b) tried their best to drag GT out of trouble with a league-best 61 runs off 37 balls for the fourth wicket.
Miller was lucky to be bowled by Karn Sharma in the 23rd ball for a typical power shot.
He punished leg-spinner Karn with a couple of sixes – a pull ball and a high delivery over extra cover – but when Maxwell caught an errant delivery at deep, he Got bowled by the same bowler.
But greater misfortune awaited the visitors as Shah Rukh fell back a bit from Rahul Tewatia’s soft fall and was unable to beat Kohli’s delivery to the non-striker.
For the sixth wicket, Tewatiya (35, 21b) and Rashid (18, 14b) added 44 off 29 balls, but the latter fell short against Yash Dayal The desire to innovate resulted in the ball hitting the stumps.
Tewatiya punished Kahn for 18 runs (4, 6, 4, 4) in the 16th over and was soon gone.
(Inputs from PTI)
