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. RCB's stand-in captain Virat Kohli sounded off on fielders for a lethargic effort after the game and said that his side handed the game to the opposition and deserved to lose.
"To be honest we handed them the game. We did deserve to lose. We handed them a victory. We were certainly not up to standard. If you look at the game, we didn't capitalize our chances. We dropped a few chances which cost us 25-30 runs. We set up ourselves really well," Kohli said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
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. The Englishman 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. The RCB skipper reflected on the team's batting performance after the game and opined that batters lost wickets on deliveries that weren't wicket-taking.
"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.
"We need to be switched on and not give away soft plays. We have won one and lost one on the road. It is not something that is making us nervous. We need to win some away games to be in good shape for the later stages of the tournament," Kohli added.
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