Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered a 21-run defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 26 (Wednesday) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. It was for the second time this season that the Red Army came up short against Nitish Rana's men. After electing to bowl, RCB conceded 200/5 in 20 overs after Jason Roy (56 runs off 29 balls) gave the Knight Riders just the kind of start they needed in the powerplay.
Roy smashed four fours and five sixes, including four sixes in the over of Shahbaz Ahmed. All the other KKR batters chipped in with handy cameos which helped the franchise post a competitive total on the board.
In their run chase, RCB kept losing wickets at regular intervals and Kohli (54 runs off 37 balls) was the lone warrior for the franchise.
Reacting to RCB's batting display on Wednesday, former England captain Kevin Pietersen urged the modern batters to learn the art of run chase from former India captain MS Dhoni.
"When you are chasing 200, you have got to take the game deep. How many times does MS Dhoni, the king of the chase, always used to say take the game deep, get to the 18th over, 19th over, 20th over," Pietersen said on Star Sports.
"What's happening now in the chase, these guys are seeing 200 and they are trying to win it in the 12th or the 13th over. The bowlers are under tremendous pressure and I think that's what Virat Kohli was trying to do this evening. Unfortunately, he got caught by a spectacular catch. That's the nature of the game," Pietersen added.
Kohli also reflected on the team's batting performance after the game and opined that batters lost wickets on deliveries that weren't wicket-taking and rued the lack of partnerships.
"We ended up hitting the fielder to balls that weren't wicket-taking. It is what's on the scoreboard and how to get them. Even while chasing, despite losing wickets, we were one partnership away from being in the game. We needed one partnership to get us home," the RCB stand-in captain opined.
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