Royal Challengers Bangalore's charismatic South African skipper Faf du Plessis is hoping to cash in on the momentum of scoring a fine 64-ball 96 -- which bulldozed Lucknow Super Giants -- to score a century in IPL 2022 soon.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
It was an emphatic win for RCB as they sealed their fifth win of the season, surpassing LSG in an emphatic all-round display that needed some effort. While du Plessis played a captain's knock, it was Shahbaz Ahmed who played the perfect anchor at the other end, steadying the innings. The duo stitched together a crucial stand of 70 runs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Du Plessis indicated that had it been a smaller ground, he would have crossed the century mark with ease, but with DY Patil's expansive boundaries, it became a bit of an effort.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Because of the nature of the (DY Patil) ground, it's quite big so you run a lot of twos. Towards the end, it can get a little bit tiring but it's a good way to keep your fitness up. My elusive IPL hundred... I feel it is around the corner," said the 37-year-old South African.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
On being awarded the player of the match in the 18-run win, he said, "Amazingly, we were in trouble, as we were in the last three or four games, but we have a knack of someone getting through it, stabilising the innings, having composure and then towards the end we're a very dangerous team. I'm grateful that I could do it. I was hungry for some runs. I wanted to make a big impact because the last few games had been quiet for me."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
He shed light on how he approached the game.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n "I went through my own processes and blueprint for scoring runs so I had a clear mental image going into this match and glad that it paid off. (I was tiring) but I was still in a mode where I felt I could still hit the ball. If you bowled slow into the wicket to the big boundary, the ball stopped quite a bit so you never felt like you had enough power to clear the boundary," du Plessis told RCB Bold diaries.<\/p>\r\n\r\n "I think it was evident from everyone that big boundary if you bowled well it was difficult to score boundaries. There was quite a bit happening in those first three or four overs. They got us in trouble and somehow, we found a way and just stuck right through the innings. But the bowlers are really on the top of their game."<\/p>\r\n\r\n Australian pace bowler Josh Hazelwood too was awestruck with the rampant performance of his skipper, saying that du Plessis was waiting to explode.<\/p>\r\n\r\n