Virat Kohli was a distraught man after RCB crashed out of IPL 2018.
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RCB had the equation laid out in front of them, as they needed 165 to win in 20 overs in order to have a chance of making it to the playoffs.
Kohli and Parthiv Patel had to get a good partnership on the board in order to ease RCB nerves. However, Kohli’s struggles against spin continued as he was knocked over by Krishnappa Gowtham.
AB de Villiers came out to bat and it started to seem that the hopes of RCB rested with him.
Batsmen around him were not upto the task and ended up throwing their wicket away.
The leg spin duo of RR were lethal during the middle overs but with ABD in the middle, it still seemed as if RCB had the advantage.
But when Gopal went through the gate and got ABD stumped, it was curtains for RCB.
The lower middle order tried to hustle a bit, but in the end RR proved to be a little too good for RCB.
Kohli was unhappy that none of the batsmen applied themselves in the middle and took responsibility in such a crunch game.
He hailed ABD for his contribution to the side but was disappointed with the overall effort of the side.
“Yeah, it was a strange one. We were in a great position. 75/1, and the way we were bundled out wasn’t ideal. Someone like AB who can hit fours and sixes was knocking it around so the others didn’t support him and apply themselves properly. We needed more smart decision-making there. These things should be repeated by 5-6 guys in a row. We wanted to strengthen the middle-order which hasn’t happened, it hasn’t been our strength and we need to do that going into the next few seasons.
“We need to be smarter with composing our team. The responsibility cannot be taken up only by AB all the time. He certainly scored runs, but others need to contribute around him, and didn’t show enough composure. There were some new players who did well. Umesh bowled extremely well with the new ball, Chahal was great, Siraj and Moeen contributed too, so plenty of positives to take into the next season. However, after cruising at 75/1 it was disappointing that we couldn’t finish it off well. I would like to wish all the other teams the best of luck for the remainder of the competition.” Kohli concluded.
