It is incredible that the best batsman of your team in that particular innings, Virat Kohli, is getting the blame and trolling for your team’s loss while other culprits escape without much criticism or scrutiny.
Batting through the innings, RCB opener Virat Kohli scored 113* (72) against Rajasthan Royals and took RCB to 183 in match number 19 of the IPL 2024 in Jaipur. Kohli and Faf du Plessis, the RCB captain, both described the pitch as slow and difficult to bat on during the first innings, and that’s the reason they assessed that a total close to 180–190 would be competitive.
Kohli said that once Faf got out, after scoring 44 runs in 33 balls, it was imperative that he batted through the innings as he was the set batter and the incoming batters would find it difficult to get going on a slow surface. This was proven accurate as Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, and Saurav Chauhan all managed single-digit scores.
The pitch, as it was observed by many, got better for batting in Rajasthan’s innings, and coupling it with the fact that RCB’s bowling is ordinary and perhaps the weakest in the tournament, it is no surprise that Jos Buttler hammered a 58-ball ton, Sanju Samson scored 69 (42) and RR chased down the target with 5 balls to spare.
The talking point among the fans and experts is that Kohli took 67 balls to reach his century, which is the joint-slowest in IPL history, along with Manish Pandey’s 67-ball ton in 2009, while Buttler needed 58 balls to reach three figures.
But the people talking are neglecting or undermining the fact that the pitch indeed was difficult to bat on in the first innings, and Rajasthan had two world-class, experienced spinners in Chahal and Ashwin, both of whom bowled superbly and tied down Kohli.
Virat Kohli has scored 38% of RCB’s total runs in IPL 2024 so far
Another factor is that with RCB’s overseas pair of Maxwell and Green struggling for runs this season, the burden came on to Kohli to bat through the innings, and that handicapped him from taking too many risks against Chahal and Ashwin on the big side boundaries at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
Virat Kohli is not the guy to be blamed for RCB’s loss vs RR, or their previous loss vs KKR either. The RCB overseas trio of Faf, Maxwell, and Green simply have underfired: Faf has 109 runs, Maxwell has only 32 runs, and Green has 68 runs.
Instead of going after Kohli for carrying the batting line-up, more should be demanded of RCB’s famed overseas trio.
Also Read: IPL 2024: Ian Bishop Apologises For Taking A Dig On Virat Kohli In Commentary
