Virat Kohli’s half-century went in vain against the Kolkata Knight Riders as the hosts went down by 21 runs at their home ground of M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
As he did in their previous encounter in Kolkata, mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy spun another web around the RCB batters and downed them. First, the KKR batters racked up 200 runs and in reply the hosts stuttered from the start of their chase, going down to 58/3. Virat Kohli and Mahipal Lomror forged a fighting partnership of 55 (34), but once both of them were dismissed, a loss seemed inevitable. And it did.
This meant KKR broke their 4-match losing streak and got back up their hopes of playoff qualification while RCB continued to remain inconsistent, having won 4 and lost 4 matches so far and are positioned 5th, and they and KKR have played one match more than the rest other 8 teams.
Virat Kohli fought hard with 54 runs off 37 balls with the help of stroking 6 fours. He got off rapidly but with little support around he too had to slow down a bit in the middle and was eventually caught on the boundary trying to muscle one ball from Russell for a six.
Virat Kohli’s wife Anushka Sharma was sitting in the stands and was as stunned as the RCB fans at the Chinnaswamy stadium when the skipper holed out at deep mid-wicket to a short ball from Andre Russell. Venkatesh Iyer took a brilliant, diving, tumbling catch at the deep mid-wicket boundary line.
After Venkatesh took a superb catch, the camera panned toward Anuskha who bore a shocked look, almost in disbelief that Kohli got out after raising his half-century and looking good in the middle for a big knock.
Watch: Anushka Sharma’s stunned reaction after Virat Kohli’s dismissal vs KKR
Meanwhile, speaking after the loss vs KKR, Kohli said: “To be honest we handed them the game. We did deserve to lose. We handed them a victory. We were certainly not up to standard. If you look at the game, we didn’t capitalize our chances. We dropped a few chances which cost us 25-30 runs. We set up ourselves really well. We ended up hitting the fielder to balls which weren’t wicket taking. It is what’s on the scoreboard and how to get them.
“Even while chasing, despite losing wickets we were one partnership away from being in the game. We needed one partnership to get us home. We need to be switched on and not give away soft plays. We have won one and lost one on the road. It is not something that is making us nervous. We need to win some away games to be in good shape for the later stages of the tournament.”
