Don’t write off champions: Nathan Lyon on Kohli’s recent batting slump
The Australian team must be hoping to take advantage of Virat Kohli’s prolonged batting slump when the two sides clash in the five-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli has suggested that they will have “more fun” playing Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first eliminator that they had in the entire league stage of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
“I want all of us to be in a positive mindset. I promise you we will have more fun in this next week than we had in two and a half months,” said Kohli in a video posted on RCB’s Twitter handle.
RCB on Monday qualified for the playoffs of the IPL 202P despite losing their last league match of the season against Delhi Capitals by six wickets. The margin of the defeat ensured RCB’s qualification as they finished with a better net run-rate (NRR) than Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
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“Well done on a fantastic achievement of reaching the playoffs. It obviously requires a lot of hard work, so well done on that. The finish hasn’t been as planned but what is done is done,” said Bangalore batting coach Simon Katich.
“We can now look for the opportunity which comes up on Friday and grab that opportunity. The things that stand (out) for me is that certain guys played according to their role in our last game. One obviously (is) Shahbaz (Ahmed) – he picked his first wicket in IPL,” he added.
Delhi Capitals on Monday chased RCB’s commendable total of 152/7 with ease, thanks to an 88-run stand between opener Shikhar Dhawan (54 off 41 balls) and Ajinkya Rahane (60 off 46).
Following their dismissal, though, Delhi had suffered a mini collpase as RCB made sure they don’t lose by a big margin for them to maintain a healthy net run-rate. RCB dragged Delhi’s innings till the end of 18th over to earn the playoff berth.
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