Amidst criticism around his strike rate, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) opener Virat Kohli made the most of dropped catches and scored 92 runs from 47 balls against Punjab Kings (PBKS). Kohli did not slow down in the middle overs and accelerated. He played freely and hit big sixes in Dharamsala to keep his team's run rate up. After scoring at a strike rate of 195.74, Kohli took a sly dig at his critics.
"It was important to keep up my strike-rate through the innings so I wanted to take on the momentum. It was a tricky phase when Rajat got out, we got three down and the rain came in. So we needed a bit of time to settle but once Cameron and I did, I thought 'I have to go again.' The wicket was a bit two-paced, the ones pitching on the grassy ones were skidding on. Great opportunity for our bowlers to make the early inroads,” Kohli told the broadcasters after RCB posted a daunting total of 241/7 on the board.
Kohli revealed that they were not thinking about posting a mammoth total. He lauded Harshal Patel for the economical over that prevented RCB from going past 250.
“We weren't thinking about it. We thought 220+ would be a good total here. Bowlers are confident with recent successes. That was the only mindset. I thought that was a hell of an over from Harshal, otherwise we'd be 250-plus,” he said.
Kohli was dropped on the third ball bowled by Vidwath Kaverappa in the first over. After Ashutosh Sharma dropped his catch, Rilee Rossouw let go of to opportunity in Kaverappa's next over. The former RCB captain lauded Kaverappa for a fantastic start as he picked up a couple of wickets with the new ball.
“Difficult to analyse in just one game. He has some swing but when new it is tough to figure them out early. Height is there, swing is also there. Kudos to him for starting well with the new ball, but by the fourth over the swing was gone," he concluded.
Kohli’s big achievements
During the knock, Kohli also became the second batter after KL Rahul to score 600-plus runs in four IPL seasons. Also, PBKS became the third opponent against who Kohli has scored more than 1,000 IPL runs. The other two teams are Delhi Capitals (DC) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK). In addition, he became the second Indian batter to hit more than 400 sixes in T20 cricket.
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