Hurt Kohli blasts RCB batting show

Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli publicly admonished his team for the second time in eight days after the star-studded side dished out another woeful performance that saw them suffer one of the most embarrassing defeats in the history of the Indian Premier League.

In front of a split Eden Gardens crowd, the Royal Challengers, chasing 132 against Kolkata Knight Riders, collapsed to 49 all out in just 9.4 overs, much to everyone’s disbelief. For a side containing the likes of Kohli, Chris Gayle and A B de Villiers, this was not something anyone would have foreseen.

Not only did RCB, looking completely out of sorts this season, post the lowest total in IPL ever, their outing was the second shortest T20 innings in all cricket. It was also the first instance where no batsman got to double digits with Kedar Jadhav’s 9 being the highest individual score. Understandably, Kohli was livid and didn’t hold back anything while assessing the performance of his team soon after the match got over on Sunday night.

“Our worst batting performance,” rued Kohli, who got out for a golden duck. “It really hurts. After the kind of half that we had, we thought we could capitalise and chase it down. Reckless batting, I can't say anything at the moment. It was that bad. This is just not acceptable.”

Kohli, however, felt the best way to deal with such a chastening defeat is to forget it as soon as possible and turn up stronger for the remainder of the campaign. “There's nothing to review anything about the second half (RCB batting), it was that bad. We need to forget it and move forward. We're a much better team. We got 200 plus in the last game (against Gujarat Lions). I'm sure everyone realises what he has done wrong. You have to come out, show intent and back yourself. I'm sure we won't bat like that again in the tournament.”

Spinner Pawan Negi, looking flat and at a loss for words at the post-match press conference, echoed his captain’s sentiment. “It’s part of the game. You have some good days and some bad days. We have to remain positive and think about doing well in the future games,” he said before saying that there was nothing wrong with the pitch where both sides got bowled out — a total rarity in T20s.
DH News Service