‘150-partnership no biggie’ – Glenn Maxwell’s honest take on Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis’ record opening stand

Royal Challengers Bangalore registered their sixth win of the season by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad in their den by eight wickets on Thursday at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in IPL 2023. This win was really important for RCB going into the competition as their chances for qualification would have taken a serious hit if they hadn’t won against SRH. The highlight of the match was certainly the knock of 100 from 63 balls from Virat Kohli his partnership with Faf du Plessis.

Kohli looked in great touch right from the very beginning, after he drove Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a boundary on the very first ball of the match. Another highlighting aspect of the match was the partnership between the openers which set the momentum. The duo added a fantastic 172-run partnership for the first wicket which pretty much sealed the deal for RCB. It was on the back of this opening stand that RCB were able to chase down the target successfully. 

After the game, RCB shared a video on their social media handle sharing the raw emotions of the players from the dressing room. Speaking on the duo’s partnership Maxwell said, “Brilliant, that was very good. We are trying to stay calm, relaxed, just another day. Got 6 of these things so, 150-partnership, no biggie. It’s just what they do, we are not surprised, they just need to keep doing it.”.

The players were later on seen relaxing after the emphatic win against SRH. The likes of Kohli, Faf du Plessis along with other members were seen lightening their mood but also keeping in mind the big match coming up against Gujarat Titans in their den. A video posted by RCB’s official Twitter account captioned “SRH v RCB Dressing Room Reactions. A century for the ages, a partnership for the record books, and a victory that takes us to Top 4 in the points table. A Happy Dressing Room but subdued celebrations as the team realises there’s a job in hand.”

The video posted also shows interviews of players like Mohammad Siraj, Dinesh Kartik, Wayne Parnell, Vijay Kumar Vyshak, and Michael Bracewell, other than Maxwell. On being asked about Kohli’s heroic knock, all these players asserted on one similar point that it was just around the corner and was a matter of time when the big score came.

Following up in the video, there were interviews of coaching staff members who congratulated the players for the show that they had put in. The RCB batting coach Sanjay Bangar praised Kohli for his knock and also went on to say that this innings of the 34-year-old batter would have certainly silenced some of his critics. Bangar even praised Faf for his fighting innings of 71 runs, considering all the cramps and strains throughout his body.