Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) stand-in skipper Virat Kohli said that the target batters put on the board was enough and there was no need to take the game till the end against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium on Thursday. RCB won the match against PBKS by 24 runs. RCB opener Faf du Plessis‘s 84 off 56 balls and Virat Kohli’s 59 off 47 helped the team score 174 which PBKS failed to chase, getting all not in 18.2 overs.
In the post-match presentation, Virat said that he did not want the game to go till the end especially after they had dismissed two-thirds of the Punjab team to the pavilion.
“The strategy was to bat deep to have a crack at 190. Told them (the bowlers) that the target was more than enough. Cannot afford to take the game deep, especially when they lost 6-7 wickets,” Kohli said in a post-match presentation.
When asked about their team’s position in the points table, Virat said that the points table cannot define how good their team is and he also said that he would be concerned about points after playing the 13 or 14 games in the tournament.
“The table can’t define your team. It’s towards game 13 or 14 we can try and focus on what we need to do,” Virat said.
Since Bangalore had gotten a solid start in the start, there was a feeling that they were 20-25 run short. However, in the second innings, the total seemed unachievable.
Siraj took a total of four wickets whereas Wanindu Hasaranga claimed two and Harshal Patel and Wayne Parnell scalped one wicket each.
“Faf batted really well on that pitch. His innings ensured we had that 20-30 extra at the end. The pitch was very rough underneath, there was not enough water there I guess. There were hardly any sixes hit off the back foot against the spinners,” the RCB captain continued.
“The batting lineups are deeper, but we also have options in our bowling. At the halfway stage, the talk was to take the game to the opposition and you kind of break the game open when you pick up 4 wickets in the powerplay,” Virat concluded.
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