People are “looking for reasons to discredit” Virat Kohli’s achievements and his legacy, feels South African women’s cricket team’s captain Dane van Niekerk. She took to Twitter on Wednesday evening to slam Virat Kohli’s detractors who have been piling up criticism and questions over the Royal Challengers Bangalore starman’s form in the ongoing IPL 2022.
Virat Kohli is having his worst IPL season since 2008 – after 11 innings, he has managed 216 runs at an average of 21 and strike rate of 111 with just one fifty-plus score; 7 of his 11 knocks have been of score less than 15.
Even that half-century came at a strike rate of 109 and RCB eventually lost the match vs Gujarat Titans. Against Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday in Pune, Kohli once again batted at a poor rate – scoring 30 from 33 balls, at a strike rate of 90 in a high-scoring game.
As Virat Kohli progressed meekly in his innings against CSK, fans raised their speculations about his intent and the negative impact on the team – the pressure resulted in Faf du Plessis’ wicket and then he ran out Glenn Maxwell, the best spin hitter of RCB.
Annoyed by all the censure to one of India’s greatest ever batsmen, Dane van Niekerk came out defending the former RCB captain. She said that people seem to be disregarding Kohli’s enviable legacy built over the past 14 years by struggles of just one season.
“Stop looking for reasons to discredit what @imVkohli has done for the game of cricket!! On the up, over extra and made it look easy.. a legend will always be a legend.. accept it! A tournament, a season does not define over a decade of consistent performances!” Dane van Niekerk tweeted.
Stop looking for reasons to discredit what @imVkohli has done for the game of cricket!! On the up, over extra and made it look easy.. a legend will always be a legend.. accept it! A tournament, a season does not define over a decade of consistent performances! #TATAIPL2022
— Danevn81 (@Danevn811) May 4, 2022
RCB did manage to defeat CSK by 13 runs. Mahipal Lomror, Rajat Patidar and Dinesh Karthik took the total to 173 before Man of the Match Harshal Patel’s three-wicket haul stifled CSK in the death overs. RCB now have 12 points in 11 games and will qualify for playoff if they win all their three remaining matches, but they will want Kohli to be back at his best before the playoffs.
