Great to see MSD hitting, says Kohli

The former Indian captain has looked in ominous touch this season and was successful in guiding his team over the line, unlike the Kings XI Punjab match. Riding on half centuries by Quinton de Kock and AB de Villiers, Royal Challengers Bangalore amassed a total of 205 runs in 20 overs and having never lost a game defending over 200 runs in the Chinnaswamy, it would have been very confident at the start. 

In reply, CSK found itself struggling at 74/4 in nine overs but Dhoni’s 32 ball 70 balls and Ambati Rayudu’s 82 from 53 balls guided the two time Champions home with a couple of balls to spare. To top it all off, Dhoni managed to finish the game off in typical Dhoni style with a huge six off Corey Anderson. 

“I am happy for him. Great to see him strike a few, not against us though. We wouldn’t have liked that. He’s hitting the ball really well this IPL. He is in a happy space, batting higher up and expressing himself. Seems to be enjoying it. Credit to him as well,” said Kohli. 

This was the second instance when Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers were not able to defend over two hundred this season. Kohli looked disappointed about the fact that despite sending four batsmen packing for 74 runs, RCB was still not able to seal the deal.

“Many things that we can look at. The way we bowled is just not acceptable. Just not good enough on the day, 72/4 and giving away runs like that for just 1 wicket is criminal. Something that we need to address going forward because we haven’t bowled well. If we cannot defend even 200, it’s a problem somewhere. It hurts at the moment, very tough for us to swallow but great game for Chennai,” said the 29-year-old.

With both sides scoring over 200 runs in the match, Kohli praised the nature of the pitch stating that it was the quality of batting resulted in over 400 runs being scored in on game. “Pitch has played really well, we are happy with that. Spin came as a massive factor, both for us and for them. But quality batting from both sides getting 200-plus. Great game for people to see but as a team, we are disappointed to not get across the line,” the RCB skipper concluded.

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli endured a 24 hours to forget after being handed a fine for an over rate offence following his side’s crushing defeat to Chennai Super Kings in Wednesday night’s IPL action. Kohli was penalised after his side failed to bowl its overs within the stipulated time at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, continuing an alarming trend in the tournament; of the 24 matches played to date, just two have been completed in the allotted time frame. 

“As it was his team’s first offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Kohli was fined Rs 12 lakh),” an IPL press release said.