Virat Kohli returned home tonight and was greeted with the loudest cheer at the Kotla, a ground that helped him hone his skills as a cricketer during his early days.
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The raucous reception turned into a celebration as Kohli notched up a brilliant innings of 70 in an attempt to take RCB over the line.
A Rishabh Pant special followed by Abhishek Sharma lighting up the death overs meant that DD managed to put up a very competitive score on the board.
Abhishek Sharma’s innings was like a breath of fresh air and onlookers all over the world started wondering why DD held him back for so long.
However, all that was brushed aside by a brilliant 100 run stand between Kohli and de Villiers in the second innings, which in the end proved to be too much for DD.
Kohli though got out for 70 and the onus then was on ABD to take RCB home, which he did so admirably.
Kohli was all praise for ABD in the post match presentation, emphasising on the fact that he is such a huge fan of his batting.
“Really happy tonight. It’s lovely batting with AB. We’ve done this many times in the past. It was a stiff chase, but in the mid-innings break AB told me ‘don’t worry, we’ll get this’, and that helped me get in the zone. I don’t need to say much, been an honour for me to bat with him. I was disappointed getting out since we had the run-rate in control. Wanted to finish it with three overs to spare, and get the net run-rate up. It cost us 10-12 balls, the victory.” Kohli said.
RCB now need to win their remaining 3 games to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot.
