In February of this year, Faf du Plessis and coach Stephen Fleming led Jo’burg Super Kings to the first SA20 semifinals. Two months later, at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, du Plessis, wearing red and gold, and Glenn Maxwell launched a bold attack as Royal Challengers Bangalore threatened to annihilate 227 against Fleming and MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings.
With the help of Devon Conway’s 45-ball 83 and Shivam Dube’s 27-ball 52, Super Kings scored 226 for 6 before striking early with their impact player Akash Singh to knock Virat Kohli for 6 in the first over. Tushar Deshpande then dismissed MahipalLomror in the following over, but du Plessis and Maxwell pounded the Super Kings’ inexperienced seamers to push them to 75 for 2 during the powerplay.
By the 14th over, Royal Challengers had quadrupled that total, and du Plessis—stiff side and all—had used luck to propel them even farther ahead. Dhoni dropped Du Plessis at the score of 0, then MaheeshTheekshana, bowling for himself, dropped him again at the score of 52. Super Kings lost two more catches due to sloppy fielding, but they were saved by late wickets and deft variations from the Sri Lankan duo of Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana.
Theekshana dismissed Maxwell for 76 runs off of 36 balls and a fizzing 104 kph carrom ball in a boundary-free over. Shahbaz Ahmed was caught holing out in an 18th over that cost just four runs, giving Pathirana, who had been bowled for 26 off ten balls by Maxwell, a second wicket.
Suyash Prabhudessai, an impact player for Royal Challengers, then hit Deshpande for six runs in the nineteenth over. Still, Pathirana held off the Royal Challengers’ charge with 18 runs off the final over thanks to his slingy, on-pace yorkers and slower cutters. The final ball he bowled, Prabhudessai was caught at deep midwicket, and his bowling coach, Dwayne Bravo, cheered him on from the bench.
Chennai Super Kings 226 for 6 (Conway 83, Dube 52, Siraj 1-30) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 218 for 8 (Maxwell, 76, du Plessis 62, Deshpande 3-45, Pathirana 2-42) by eight runs