Royal Challengers Bengaluru talisman Virat Kohli was criticised by a lot of cricket boffins after he trudged to 51 runs off 43 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kohli scored 32 off 18 balls but could only manage 19 runs in the next 25 balls.
However, Kohli shrugged off his strike rate woes against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday as he scored a fine knock of 70 runs off just 44 balls in the run-chase of 200. Kohli kept the aggressive approach even after the Powerplay overs by making the most of the sweep shot.
Kohli scored six fours and three maximums against GT as he scored his runs at a strike rate of 159.09. The veteran said he doesn’t care about his numbers and the team’s success is more important for him.
Kohli said after the game, “Not really, all the people who talk about strike-rates and me not playing spin well are the ones talking about this stuff. For me, it’s about winning the games for the team and there’s a reason why you’ve done it for 15 years, you’ve done this day in and day out, you’ve won games for your teams, I’m not quite sure that if you haven’t been in that situation yourself, to sit and talk about the game from the box. For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who have done day in and day out, they know what’s happening and it’s a kind of muscle memory for me now.”
Kohli also showered praise on Will Jacks, who scored a blistering knock of 100 runs off just 41 balls and played a key role in the team’s win. The former RCB skipper added it was great fun to see from the other end. Kohli added 166 runs with Jacks for the second wicket and took RCB to a convincing win.
Kohli concluded, “Phenomenal, I mean when he initially came onto bat (on Jacks), he was a bit annoyed that he wasn’t able to strike the ball as cleanly as he wanted to, but the only conversation between us in the middle was to keep backing, keep committing because we know how explosive he can be. My role completely changed as soon as he got that big over off Mohit, for good, I was glad to be watching the game from the other end. I mean, I thought we could win the game in 19 overs, but to finish it in 16 overs was an outstanding effort. I think it was one of the better T20I hundreds one would ever see, I was just happy to watch it closely from the other end.”
RCB will once again take on GT at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Saturday.
