Death. Taxes. Virat Kohli stepping up in run chases. These three things are certain in life. The former India captain produced a masterclass on Friday night at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru as the defending Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) defeated the Gujarat Titans by five wickets. The right-handed batter played with a strike rate of 184.09, scoring 81 runs off 44 balls, including eight boundaries and four sixes, helping RCB chase down 206 with five wickets in hand and seven balls to spare.
Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal made light work of the chase as the duo put on 115 runs for the second wicket off just 59 balls, with the latter scoring 55 off 27. The duo weren’t able to stay at the crease till the end, but the two ensured that the chase was set up for RCB. With this win, the defending champions moved to the second spot in the points table.
Kohli, who was adjudged as Player of the Match and also became the latest holder of the Orange Cap, identified Padikkal as the major difference between the two teams, saying the left-hander’s onslaught eased the nerves within the RCB camp.
“Dev’s done this twice this season, where he’s come in and absolutely played a blinder from ball one. The first ball he hit off Rabada was magnificent, and he has the game awareness and the ability, especially in conditions like ours, to be able to play good cricketing shots and hurt opposition, striking over 200, which is quite rare, to be honest,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
“You never see him slogging the ball. You feel like he’s not giving you a sniff in the game, and yet he’s scoring so freely. So I think Dev’s innings was the clear difference in the first half. And then I was just trying to stay in the game enough so that he wouldn’t feel all the pressure. And it was my responsibility to try to hit boundaries at the right times. And yeah, that partnership was the game-sealer and the game-changer for us eventually,” he added.
10-15 runs short
In the match against RCB, the Gujarat Titans got off to a good start as Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill put on 128 runs for the opening wicket. However, the 2022 champions didn’t get the desired big hits in the final few overs, and the team had to settle for just 205/3 despite Sudharsan hitting a ton.
Kohli said his bowlers did an excellent job at the backend, restricting GT to under 210, and said the team were at least 10-15 runs short.
“Even in our bowling innings, I think we bowled really well to pull things back. They were about, I felt, 20-25 short in the end. We were looking at 230, 235 at one stage. But our bowlers did a magnificent job and the feedback was the pitch is not bad at all. It’s probably the best batting conditions we’ve had so far. The ball was coming on nicely. The spinners were not quite getting the ball to grip,” said Kohli.
“It wasn’t holding into the pitch. So we felt like if you stay in the game enough, string in a big partnership, then it’s going to get tougher and tougher. And yeah, once you get hold of the conditions and you get on top of the bowlers, then you obviously back yourselves a little more to take the game on. And that was the conversation. Dev was going great guns and the idea was just to, keep pressing the bowlers back. And whoever we felt like, we want to take down, the message was very clear from the batsmen and then the non-striker saying, yeah, go for it. So there was intent and there was clarity and feedback from the other end. So we didn’t have any doubts whatsoever through the partnership. And I think that’s what worked for us,” he added.