Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli admitted that he shouldn’t have gone after Mumbai Indians’ best bowler – Jasprit Bumrah – after they lost a close and controversy-hit encounter by six runs.
Kohli was batting on 46 and had already added 49 runs with AB de Villiers when he went for a pull shot off Bumrah’s bowling but ended up mistiming it to the fielder at square leg. The home team still needed 72 runs in 38 deliveries at that stage and De Villiers tried his best but still couldn’t get his team over the line.
“I got out at a wrong point of time. I mean Jassi is a top-class bowler. A bit of a mistake from me to take him on at that stage. Mumbai is lucky to have him. And also Malinga. And if Jassi is in good form, it is good for India,” said Kohli at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Bangalore had managed to reduce Mumbai to 147 for 7 before Hardik Pandya smashed 32 in just 14 deliveries to lead his team to a total of 187 for 8.
“When they were 147 for 7, we should have done better. The last few overs were brutal for us. A few more strikes apart from AB could have done the job for us. We need to be smarter at death bowling. Sure the guys will take a lot of learnings from the game. I think the way they bowled, we can learn from their game. The onus is always on each and every member of the team,” said Kohli.
Meanwhile, Mumbai captain Rohit said he knew Bumrah and Lasith Malinga would do the job for them despite de Villiers going berserk from one end.
“Malinga has been the part of MI for a long time. Last year, he came as a mentor, this year he wants to do well. You can always trust those guys in the back end. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it may not. They brought experience into play. With AB at the other end, anything can happen. We were quite brave to bowl the deliveries we bowled,” said Rohit.
“Bumrah executed well and we just missed a trick in the middle with the bat. Those are the kind of things we need to remember when we are playing big games.
“We were in the game even though Virat and AB were batting. We didn’t panic, we kept sticking to our strengths. From 7 overs to 15 overs, it’s a crucial phase. We stuck to our plans and I think it was a great effort from the bowling unit. RCB is a quality side and you can’t give a sniff to them. They’ll come back and hurt you. We were up to the mark today.”
Rohit was also impressed with the way Hardik Pandya performed in this match.
“We all understand Hardik’s importance in this team. He was out for few weeks. Whatever happened with him, he needed this confidence. He batted well and got us those crucial runs in the end and I thought he bowled really well. This will give him enough evidence. It’ll be good for us if he keeps performing like this and also for team India in the future.”
Bumrah was rightly named Man of the Match and the paceman said all he does is back his strengths.
“You go ball by ball and you try to control the controllables. You try to back yourself in the situation. You don’t go too far behind, I was just focussing on my plan and trying to back my strengths. I always try to back myself in any situation and execute the plan to perfection,” said Bumrah, who picked up 3 for 20.
