Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) started their IPL 2023 campaign with a handsome win over Mumbai Indians by eight wickets. But their pacer Reece Topley sustained an injury while fielding in the first innings. While fielding at the short fine leg, Topley's knee got stuck in the ground and fell awkwardly on his shoulder and was grimacing in pain. The physio attended him soon but there was no immediate recovery and hence, the left-arm pacer walked off the field. Topley had bowled only two overs until then and didn't come back to complete his quota of four overs.
After the match RCB wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, while speaking to Jio Cinema, provided an update on Topley's injury. He admitted that the injury seemed serious at first but believes that the pain is not much now. However, the cricketer was taken for scans and the results of the same are awaited now.
"It (shoulder) did pop out, but it went back in. I think he went for a scan during the game itself. He’s not in as much pain as we thought he’d be in. We’ll have to wait and see," Karthik said. RCB will be hoping for Topley to recover soon as Josh Hazlewood is already unlikely to play at least in the first half of the season.
Virat Kohli was the star for RCB with the bat in the game scoring an unbeaten 82. Speaking after the match, Kohli was delighted that the team won while playing their first match in four years in Bengaluru. He also lauded leg-spinner Karn Sharma for delivering a terrific spell. "I thought it was a phenomenal win, a homecoming after 4 years. Couldn't have asked for a better game. We bowled well for the first 17 overs but then credit to their batters especially Tilak who batted really well. It was a very comprehensive win and we wanted to win with balls to spare as it will benefit the NRR.
"The new ball was tricky, that's where we shifted the momentum, they can ride on that momentum from the last two overs of their batting but the way we started nullified all that momentum. We kept the pressure on the bowlers. Phenomenal, it was a packed crowd, every seat was full when we walked in here. Very important we started off well, their support propelled us and that makes a massive difference.
"I think he was phenomenal, phenomenal spell from him, that's brave bowling after getting the left-hander out [on Karn Sharma]. He was bowling so well for us last year but he couldn't play. Even in the nets he was not getting hit for sixes, hats off to him for coming and playing after so long, to perform against such a strong MI side at the Chinnaswamy is great for him.
"I wanted to mention this for a while - after MI who have 5 titles and CSK who have 4, if I'm not wrong, we are the third team to have qualified the most times to the playoffs - 8 times. Take one game at a time and try to be a balanced side which we are and we would look to execute our plans as we did tonight," Kohli said.
