Virat Kohli’s 77-run knock helped RCB pick up their first win of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League.
New Delhi: Punjab Kings’ captain Shikhar Dhawan blamed the dropped catch of star batter Virat Kohli in the first over of RCB’s innings as the reason for their four-wicket loss against Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bengaluru in match 6 of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, on March 25.
During Sam Curran’s first over, Jonny Bairstow gave Virat Kohli a lifeline on the very second ball of their innings. However, this backfired as Virat Kohli played a match-winning knock of 77 runs off just 49 balls. He also received the Player of the Match for his astonishing innings against Punjab Kings.
“It was a good game, we brought the game back and again we lost it. We scored 10-15 runs less, in the first six overs I played a bit slow. Those 10-15 runs cost us and the dropped catch as well. (Turning point) Virat scored 70-odd runs and we dropped a catch of the class player, we paid the price. If we had taken that catch, the momentum would have come from the second ball. But we lost the momentum over there and then we paid the price for that,” said Dhawan in the post-match presentation.
“It looked good but it wasn’t a very true wicket, it was stopping, bit of double bounce and turned as well. 70% coming good, 30% it was doing a bit. I am happy with my runs but I thought I could have played a bit more fast in the first six overs, that’s the only thing I felt. We lost wickets as well, we lost two wickets continuously and that put pressure on us. At the end, that’s the total we thought on this wicket. The match went till the last over, at the end also we could have bowled a bit better,” he added.
Dhawan also praised Harpreet Brar, who picked up two big wickets of Rajat Patidar and Glenn Maxwell in his four overs spell and only gave away 13 runs. Dhawan said “He’s bowling really well, especially bowling against left-handers, tremendous the way he soaked in the pressure and got us the breakthroughs. It’s a very big thing in Punjab, the Kabaddi thing, the people really connect with that thigh-five, happy to see him do it.”
Virat Kohli’s 77 and Dinesh Karthik’s blazing 28-run knock off just 10 balls helped RCB pick up their first win of IPL 2024. They would try to carry on this momentum in their next match against Kolkata Knight Riders on March 29 at the same venue. On the other hand, PBKS will try to get back on the winning track as they take on Lucknow Super Giants on March 30 in Lucknow.