Virat Kohli is not one to mince words and his hunger to win and immense passion for the game is well evidenced. All that combined to frustrate Kohli on Wednesday as the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) lost their home match against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Kohli, who captained RCB with regular skipper Faf du Plessis playing only as a batsman due to an injury, was blunt in his assessment and didn't hesitate to say that they deserved to lose as they were not "professional enough" on the field.
After opener Jason Roy smashed 56 and skipper Nitish Rana, who was dropped twice, hammered 48 off 21 balls to power the Knights to 200/5, Kohli (54) led RCB's reply with his fifth fifty of the season. But their chase was derailed by soft dismissals and they fell to a 21-run loss, their fourth defeat of the campaign.
“To be honest, we handed over the game,” a visibly upset Kohli said after the match.
“We deserved to lose because we weren’t professional enough in the field. I thought the bowlers hit decent areas, but we didn’t hold on to our chances.
"That’s what you call a freebie in T20 cricket and we literally handed them a victory,” the former India captain said.
“With the bat, I thought we set ourselves up really well,” Kohli said.
“And then so many soft dismissals ... those were not really wicket-taking balls, but we ended up hitting to the fielder four-five times in the innings.
“These are some of the soft plays in cricket which you want to avoid as a team.”
RCB next face Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday.
Written with inputs from Reuters
Sundar out with injury
New Delhi: Sunrisers all-rounder Washington Sundar was on Thursday ruled out of the remainder of this IPL due to a hamstring injury, dealing a big blow to the struggling team.
The franchise — who are ninth in the table as of Thursday — announced Sundar’s injury and his unavailability in a tweet: “Washington Sundar has been ruled out of the IPL 2023 due to a hamstring injury. Speedy recovery, Washi.”
The 23-year-old bowling all-rounder has taken three wickets from the seven matches he played so far, at an average of 48.66 and an economy of 8.26. With the bat, he managed 60 runs with a highest score of 24 not out.
The Tamil Nadu player had also been injured during the last IPL season, suffering split webbing in his bowling hand.
PTI
