Sanjay Manjrekar
Sanjay Manjrekar. Image-BCCI.

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar felt that Virat Kohli slowed down considerably after getting to 50, which affected the flow of his game. Although Kohli looked fluent in the initial stages, the track started playing slower, which made it difficult to bat for the 32-year-old.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were off to a fabulous start against their southern rivals, Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal put up a 111-run opening partnership, but they ended up losing their way once the former fell.

Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli. (Photo: IPL)

Part of Kohli’s dismissal might have been the pressure of the dot balls that were building up in the middle-overs, a phase that has troubled RCB the most in the league. Talking about the same in a conversation with ESPNcricinfo, Sanjay Manjrekar said:

“Whether he got a bit caught up in that thing about getting to 50 because it’s a huge nosedive from 153 to 86 when there is no apparent reason.”

Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal
(Image: Twitter)

CSK brush aside RCB en route to an easy 6-wicket victory

After setting up an under-par total of 156/6 in their allotted 20 overs, RCB needed quick wickets to make a match out of it. CSK openers Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad replicated what their RCB counterparts did and put up a 50-run partnership inside the powerplay.

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Faf du Plessis
Faf du Plessis (Image: Twitter)

The duo fell soon after, but Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu pushed the team closer to the target. Eventually, it was the nostalgic combination of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina who took their team over the line for a thumping win. The victory took CSK back over Delhi Capitals (DC) to the top of the table.

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