I Have To Stand In Front And Take The Brunt Of It: Virat Kohli Accepts Responsibility For The Loss To KXIP

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli had a day to forget at the office as what could go wrong went wrong for him. Virat Kohli strangely struggled in the field as well as could not make any impact as RCB suffered a 97-run drubbing at the hands of Kings XI Punjab. The 31-year old managed only a single with the bat while batting at number four.

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Virat Kohli sent Kings XI Punjab to bat as he reckoned that the wicket was a fresh one and expected dew to come along. It was KL Rahul, who held the innings together as Punjab stuttered slightly in the middle overs. However, the Karnataka batsman finished strongly, taking the RCB bowling attack to the cleaners. He smashed 132 off 69 deliveries, sending plenty of records tumbling as Kohli handed him a couple of reprieves too.

RCB could not even be competitive with the bat as Punjab’s Sheldon Cottrell and Mohammed Shami reduced them to 4-3 inside three overs in pursuit of 206. Kohli, who usually love to chase down scores, managed only a single. AB De Villiers and Aaron Finch built a partnership of 49 runs; however, the opposing bowlers kept piling the pressure and bowled brilliantly. Eventually, RCB got bundled for 109 in 17 overs, suffering a massive defeat by 97 runs.

“I think we were pretty good in the middle phase with the ball” : Virat Kohli

The RCB captain felt that their bowlers performed well in the middle overs; however, lamented his mistakes that cost them extra runs. Kohli believed that 180 was a manageable total but admitted it was time to move on and fix those lapses. When asked about sending Josh Philippe at number three, the Delhi batsman acknowledged his performances for Western Australia and in Big Bash League as they aimed to maximize his ability. Kohli concluded by saying that their plans to take it deep in the middle overs while chasing a big total did not come off in one of these situations.

“I think we were pretty good in the middle phase with the ball. I have to stand in front and take the brunt of it. Cost about 30-40 runs. If we’d restricted them at 180 we wouldn’t have felt pressure to go from ball one. There are days when you have these kind of things happen. Just have to accept them. We’ve had a good game, we’ve had a bad game. Time to move on. We need to learn to plug those little mistakes. We did pretty well, especially closing in on the second time out and just after that.

But as I said, should have led from the front with those two chances. With the bat as well, we started well, but we should have put pressure straight away. [Philippe at 3] He’s batted at the top of the order for WA and done well at the big bash as well. Early days, we tried to see if we can maximise his ability. We just thought chasing a big total, we’ll give outselves a bit of depth in the middle overs. Just didn’t come off. One of the things you try and couldn’t execute,” Virat Kohli said in the Post-match presentation.

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