Virat Kohli captained RCB after 556 days in an IPL match against Punjab Kings in Mohali yesterday. Mohammed Siraj bowled brilliantly and took 4 wickets. Due to the contribution of Duplessis and Kohli in the batting, RCB won 174 runs brilliantly.
Mohammed Siraj’s 4 wickets with astonishing aggressive bowling earned him the Purple Cap. Even though Kohli and Duplessis stood for 16 overs, the score was 137 instead of 160. The fact that Virat Kohli gets slow after the power play is becoming a big debate. Although Kohli gave a thousand reasons for it, the real reason is that apart from Kohli, Duplessis and Maxwell, no one has scored in RCB after them. Can Kohli spell this out? So we have to talk about pitch and condition.
It is not easy to say whether it is because of his weakness against spin or the lack of batting line-up that we have mentioned that he is unable to even try to score the spin delivery in the power play or afterwards. If Kohli hits a boundary in the 14th over after yesterday’s power play, it is doubtful whether this can be called a strategy. Kohli didn’t even try to hit Rahul Chahar when he was bowling. Why? For T20 openers should finish with power play, that too in 6 overs at least 60-65 runs and one should take risk after power play and play to increase the run rate. Don’t join any strategy of going slow after the power play?
This is the reason why Glenn Maxwell was bowled out as soon as his eyes ‘set’ to the light after 16 overs and only 137 runs. 174 runs would not have been enough if Duplessis had not played aggressively and scored 84 runs without compromise. Other good teams would have chased it, if they had chased it, it would have been because of Kohli’s slow batting. Many experts believe that Kohli is paying attention to the matter.
In this case, Captain Virat Kohli, who spoke at the awarding ceremony after the match yesterday, answered a question about the RCB team being in 5th place with 3 wins and 6 points in 6 matches.
“A score sheet cannot explain the character of a team. We will see it and do what we have to do during the 13th or 14th match. A team’s strength cannot be weighed by the team’s place in it. It cannot determine our thoughts. Had Du Plessis and I stayed on, we would have gone up to 190-200 runs. But we thought 175 was a good score on this pitch.
All I said was that this 174 runs was more than required. Victory in T20 cricket is achieved by taking wickets. Our fielding was good,” said Virat Kohli.
