KKR vs RCB: Faf du Plessis drops "rules are rules" bombshell on Virat Kohli's controversial dismissal

The Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) locked horns with the Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 36th match of Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Sunday, April 21, at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

RCB were at the receiving end of a 1-run defeat in the thrilling match as they failed to chase down the total of KKR. Batting first, KKR registered 222/6 and while chasing the target, RCB batters did a decent job and in the end, Karn Sharma played a stellar 20-run cameo. On the last delivery of the match, RCB needed 3 runs and they managed just one and were restricted to 221 runs.

Speaking after the match, Faf du Plessis talked about the controversial dismissal of Virat Kohli and said that they felt that the delivery was a waist-high no-ball, but rules are meant to be followed.

"It was crazy, rules are rules, Virat and myself thought that the ball was higher than the waist (on Kohli's dismissal), I guess they measured from the popping crease, one team thinks it's high, the other doesn't. That's how the game goes at times."

Faf du Plessis credited the Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Sunil Narine for bowling a game-changing over. Faf du Plessis said:

"Then the partnership, it was magnificent (on the Jacks-Patidar partnership), but when you don't win too many games, some sort of panic sets in and the Narine over was game-changing."

"You don't feel that you have time to settle down and bat (on the evolution of the IPL this season), the game doesn't allow it to do that, obviously you have an extra batter, but in chases like these, you have to keep going. The match-up against Narine, I thought that was the game changing over. 

Faf du Plessis, however, was impressed with the performance of his team across all three departments and he showered rich praise on players. Faf du Plessis elaborated:

"The small things, I am actually proud of the boys tonight, the way we bowled and fielded, we did give away a couple of big overs towards the end, but I thought we kept them down to a par score. We thought we'll go hard in the batting powerplay, find those boundaries at the start of the innings. 

"We were desperate, 10/10 from an effort perspective, the way we put up the effort in the ground, the faces told the story. We've got an unbelievable fanbase, we want to make them happy, we want them to have a smile on their face. We'll have to continue putting in our efforts and try to change things around."

Previous Match Results Between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)

In the previous few encounters between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the Kolkata-based franchise won 4 matches and lost just 1.

On March 29, 2024, Kolkata Knight Riders thumped the Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 7 wickets with 19 balls remaining. In IPL 2023, the two teams faced off each other twice on April 6 and April 26. On April 6, KKR registered a dominant 81-run victory before registering a brilliant 21-run win on April 26.

In Indian Premier League 2022, KKR and RCB took on each other only once on March 30 and RCB won by 3 wickets with 4 balls remaining. In IPL 2021, they locked horns with each other thrice including an Eliminator clash. RCB won one match by 38 runs while KKR were victorious in 2 matches, including Eliminator, by 9 wickets and 4 wickets.