Virat Kohli made the Gujarat Titans pay in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 fixture at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday. The chase master once again stepped up with the bat, scoring 81 runs off 44 balls, setting up the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) chase of 206. In the end, the defending champions won the contest with five wickets in hand and seven balls to spare. However, the Gujarat Titans would have been in the contest had Washington Sundar not made a costly error in the opening over.
The Gujarat Titans had the chance to send Kohli back to the hut for a duck in the opening over, but Sundar ended up dropping a sitter off the bowling of Mohammed Siraj. This was all the luck that the 37-year-old needed, and he ended up smashing eight fours and four sixes in his knock of 81 as RCB made light work of the 206-chase.
Former West Indies pacer Ian Bishop sympathised with the 26-year-old, saying anyone can drop catches; however, he advised the young all-rounder to work on his fielding, as these sorts of errors keep happening to him.
“No, I see that differently. We have all dropped catches. You don’t pick and choose which ones you drop. But what I would ask Washy is that your level of fielding has got to go up. He’s a young guy, athletic enough,” said Bishop on ESPNcricinfo ‘TimeOut’.
“For too long, I have been seeing missed opportunities with him. So I would ask him to put a little more work in that so he becomes an asset in the field in addition to all the other things,” he added.
Steyn agrees
Former South Africa speedster Dale Steyn agreed with Bishop, saying one cannot drop a player like Kohli, given his knack for acing chases.
“Can’t drop Kohli. The guy who’s gonna be one of the best chasers in the world. That catch, actually, doesn’t matter who it is; you just can’t drop that. That’s ten out of ten times, you should be taking that,” said Steyn.
Speaking of the Kohli drop, Sundar put down a simple catch at mid-wicket. Siraj bowled a good length delivery on the pads, and Kohli just flicked the ball straight to the all-rounder. However, it was simply in and out of Sundar’s hands, and the youngster painted a sorry picture once the chance went begging.
Owing to the win over the Gujarat Titans, RCB moved to the second spot, while the Shubman Gill-led side remains at the seventh spot.