Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) started the IPL 2023 season with a handsome win over Mumbai Indians. But it hasn't taken much time for the tables to turn on them. They have lost two games on the bounce after a good start and on both occasions, they were in a winning position. Their latest loss came against Lucknow Super Giants at home as RCB could not defend a mammoth total of 212 runs and lost the game by one wicket.
Moreover, their over-rate was not at all great and were behind by one over according to the innings timer. Hence, they had to bring an extra fielder inside the 30-year circle during the match. Not only that, their skipper Faf du Plessis has been fined for INR 12 lakh for the team's poor over-rate in the match.
A media advisory from IPL stated, "The Royal Challengers Bangalore have been fined for maintaining a slow over-rate during their TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match 15 against the Lucknow Super Giants at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, on Monday. As it was the team’s first offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, captain Faf du Plessis was fined Rs 12 lakhs."
It was a tough outing as captain for Faf du Plessis as the bowlers were taken apart despite picking up three wickets early in the innings. He was visibly disappointed after losing the match but credited LSG batters Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran for taking the game away from RCB.
"Disappointed. They played well through the middle. One ball one run. We backed ourselves to get a run-out. Just looking at the wicket, from 7-14 it was quite slower. The last five overs it started skidding on. Really good for some good cricketing shots. Stoinis and Pooran played everything off the middle. They took on one of our main bowler (Harshal) in his first couple of overs. It is a difficult place to bowl at the death. You have to be on top of your game. I was struggling for most part of my innings. Was happy to give strike back to Kohli, sometimes you have to scratch. When I started hitting a few of the middle I got my flow back," he said.
