GT vs RCB: "19 off 25, You accept it?" Virat Kohli being defended by Varun Aaron leads to live outrage from Tom Moody

Former RCB pacer Varun Aaron tried to defend Virat Kohli for scoring his half-century very slowly against Hyderabad last night with Tom Moody calling it unacceptable. 

Varun Aaron was sitting along with Tom Moody in ESPNcricinfo's post-match IPL show and they were discussing every bit of the RCB Vs SRH clash last night.

Virat Kohli's knock divides opinions 

In one of the segments, the host asked Aaron and Moody to share their views on Virat Kohli's approach behind scoring his 3rd fifty of IPL 2024 at a strike rate of just 118. 

Though Bengaluru had maintained a run rate of 10 through out their innings Virat Kohli's knock was very questionable. Yes he had to ensure that he was holding on to one end strongly amid the continuous fall of wickets. But one can't also deny that RCB could have easily scored more than they did if Kohli had accelerated his innings to some extent. 

After Faf du Plessis and Will Jacks' departures, it was Rajat Patidar who smashed the ball all over and maintained a good run-rate. Patidar played at a strike rate of 250 along with 2 fours and 5 sixes and scored 50 off 20. The highlight of his knock was the 4 back-to-back sixes he smacked off SRH leg-spinner Mayank Markande. 

What did Varun Aaron say about Virat Kohli? 

In the post-match ESPNcricinfo show, Varun Aaron was asked to explain the reason behind Virat Kohli's slow knock. The host asked if it was a case of his intent, or the slow bowling from Hyderabad or is it something that is bound to happen some day. 

To its response, Aaron first highlighted that Virat Kohli has been scoring most of RCB's runs and that the team is being overly dependent on him. And his innings against SRH was one where the bowlers weren't giving Kohli any pace on the ball whatsoever. That, according to the former India pacer, could be a tactic that opposing teams could use against him from now on. 

"Look he's been scoring the bulk of the runs for RCB. They have been depending on him. They have been overly dependent on him. Today was one of those days where the opposition just wasn't giving him pace on the ball. And that's something which the teams after this game will take - that doesn't give him too much pace out of the powerplay."

"And Jaidev Unadkat did that really well. He was getting really frustrated because he just wasn't able to generate any power. So credit also goes to the SRH bowling." - Varun Aaron said via ESPNcricinfo's Timeout show. 

Tom Moody interrupts and says Kohli's 19 off the last 25 balls is unacceptable

The host then read out Virat Kohli's runs in his last 25 balls. Kohli had scored just 19 off those 4 overs of balls he played and Tom Moody asked Varun Aaron if that was justified or not. "19 runs off 25. So you accept that regardless of how well the opposition bowled?" - Moody asked Aaron. 

"No, I'm not saying I accept that. The thing is, that's obviously baseline. That's way too slow for a T20 game. But we also should address the way the Sunrisers bowlers bowled." - Aaron concluded.