Faf du Plessis comments after losing the first game against CSK, saying, “I felt we were 15 or 20 runs short.”

Faf du Plessis blamed RCB’s poor batting performance in the powerplay for their defeat. Notably, his side was comfortably at 37/0 after four overs, and would have been looking for anything between 50-55 in the first six to set the tone for the remainder of the innings after the captain, in particular, got off to a flier in the first four overs, courtesy of the seven fours he had already hit by then.

The defending champions, the Chennai Super Kings, and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru played the opening match of the seventeenth edition of the Indian Premier League (2024) at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

It’s reasonable to say that this match was every bit as delicious as the Southern Derby’s many delicious classics over the years. In essence, everything was covered, and there was a ton of drama throughout. This match had it everything, from the opening ceremony in the evening to CSK’s new captain Ruturaj Gaikwad stepping out for the toss.

It was rather easy for CSK to win in the end, defeating RCB by a margin of six wickets with eight balls remaining. With this win, CSK continued their winning run at the Chepauk, having won eight straight games there. In the tournament’s first year, RCB had only managed a single victory, by 14 runs.

The momentum was quickly turned, though, by the lanky left-arm pacer from Bangladesh, Mustafizur Rahman, who claimed two wickets in one over. Deepak Chahar then removed Glenn Maxwell for a golden duck, leaving the Royals derailed from a score of 41 for no loss to 42/3 after the powerplay.

The South African said he thought his team lost too many wickets in the opening seven overs, implying that the incoming batsmen needed to stay at the crease long enough to reorganize the innings. In addition, he said that his team thought they were short by 15 to 20 runs on a pitch that wasn’t as bad as it had been during the first part of their inning.

“The lads had to bat a little bit to stabilize the innings again because, regrettably, we lost a few too many wickets in the first seven overs. Faf du Plessis stated on the official broadcast following the game, “And, at the end, I felt we were 15 or 20 runs short on a pitch that wasn’t as bad as we played in the first ten overs.”

The former CSK player also stated that CSK is a very strong middle-overs team and that visiting teams virtually feel obliged to gain the upper hand in the powerplay because it is ingrained in CSK’s DNA to restrict the run flow by using their spinners after the first six overs.

Because CSK is a very good team in the middle overs, you feel like you have to almost get ahead of the game in those first six overs when you play here. They squeeze you with the spinners for so many years,” he continued.

Faf added that CSK was maintaining a pace that consistently maintained them ahead of RCB, despite the fact that they pegged them back by getting their score to read 114/4 in 13 overs, with the Men in Yellow still needing 60 in the next seven overs.

“We were always a little bit behind in terms of trying to get ahead of the game,” du Plessis stated. “They were batting at a pace where they were always still in front of the game even though we were pulling it back” , said the 39-year-old.

The five-time champions were guided by fellow southpaw Ravindra Jadeja to an undefeated 66-run partnership in the fifth wicket, with eight balls remaining.

Faf du Plessis team attempted the shot ball strategy with Shivam Dube, but he handled it quite well.

Mustafizur Rahman achieves his highest IPL performance.

The Fizz caused complete chaos in the RCB camp earlier in the match by providing two double-wicket overs that contained the much sought-after wickets of Virat Kohli, Cameron Green, and RCB skipper Rajat Patidar. Mustafizur won Player of the Match for his outstanding display with the ball and for finishing with statistics of 4/29 in his four overs, which are now his best in the competition.