PBKS vs RCB: "You Cannot Afford To Take The Game Deep" - Virat Kohli Speaks On Bangalore's Win Over Punjab Kings

Royal Challengers Bangalore will be happy with their performance in their sixth match in the Indian Premier League 2023 as the side managed to emerge victorious by 24 runs against Punjab Kings with Virat Kohli leading the side in the partial absence of Faf du Plessis.

The opening pair of Virat Kohli and Faf Du Plessis played exceptionally well after being invited to bat first and added 137 runs in 16 overs. Kohli scored 59, and Du Plessis made 84 before being dismissed. RCB’s middle order couldn’t contribute much, and they finished their innings with 174 runs for 4 wickets in 20 overs.

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In response, Punjab Kings struggled in the absence of their regular captain Shikhar Dhawan, losing four wickets in the powerplay. Mohammed Siraj took two wickets in the first six overs and then followed it up with another two wickets as the bowler racked up a total of 4 wickets in the contest.

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Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma tried to steady the innings, but the latter was the only one to keep the fight going. Sharma scored 41 runs, but he couldn’t take the team to victory, as he got out in the final overs trying to hit a big shot against Harshal Patel, and RCB won the match by 24 runs.

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The Table Can’t Define Your Team: Virat Kohli

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s stand-in skipper Virat Kohli was with the presenter as he talked about the team’s performance. Virat Kohli also added that it was too early to judge a team’s performance by their position on the points table and there is still a long way to go.

Also Read: PBKS vs RCB: All-Round Performance From Bowlers Following Virat Kohli & Faf Du Plessis’ Century Partnership Seal RCB A Much-Needed Win

Virat also had a piece of advice for Punjab Kings after the game as he felt that the opposition made a mistake taking the game deep, as they had already lost a lot of wickets, and taking the game deep in that scenario was not the right call.

Also Read: Also Read: PBKS vs RCB: Virat Kohli Becomes The First Player To Complete Century Of 30+ Scores In IPL History

“The table can’t define your team. It’s towards game 13 or 14 we can try and focus on what we need to do. Faf batted really well on that pitch. His innings ensured we had that 20-30 extra at the end. The pitch was very rough underneath, there was not enough water there I guess. There was hardly any sixes hit off the back foot against the spinners.”

“The strategy was to bat deep to have a crack at 190. Told them (the bowlers) that the target was more than enough. Cannot afford to take the game deep, especially when they lost 6-7 wickets. The batting line ups are deeper, but we also have options in our bowling. At the halfway stage, tha talk was to take the game to the opposition and you kind of break the game open when you pick up 4 wickets in the powerplay.”

With a big win to their name, RCB have now climbed up to the 5th spot on the points table with 6 points to their name in 6 games with the side winning and losing 3 games each.

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