Bangalore: Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli cut a sorry figure after his team’s five-wicket defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals, stating that his pacers couldn’t hit the blockhole at the death.
“We were just not able to hit the yorkers in the end,” a dejected Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony. Kohli simply didn’t knew what hit his team as he said that a team would fail to score 64 in 24 balls atleast nine out of 10 times. “64 in four overs, I mean you don’t get nine times out of 10 times. It was brilliant batting from them but we should have got our yorkers,” Kohli rued.
The skipper also seemed a tad upset that there might have been a hint of complacency in his bowlers after the batsmen scored 190. “I told the guys to be on the button as this is a fast scoring ground. I told them at the break that the game is far from over, when you think it is over.”
Rival skipper Shane Watson lauded Steve Smith (48) and James Faulkner (41) stating that they had the self belief to perform. The Australian duo scored 65 runs off just 17 balls to finish the match in a jiffy. “We have always got belief, especially with batting we have got,” Watson said.
“We always knew we were ahead of RCB’s run-rate at every stage, and we knew we would have to pull something like their last five overs. And Steve and James were incredible in the end. Big win, especially because of where we were positioned in the game after the way they batted.”
Man-of-the-match Faulkner said in jest that he enjoys playing at the ground more so due to batting than his bowling. “I don’t know about bowling but twice when I have played here, I have been smacked all over the place,” Faulkner said with a straight face.
“In all seriousness, I thought AB was going to hit me for six sixes. It was very tough. We needed a few runs. I thought Steven batted really well in the 18th over to give us a lot of momentum, and the rest is history.”
