Virat Kohli lashed out at his bowlers after Royal Challengers Bangalore lost their fifth successive match of the 2019 Indian Premier League on Friday. Kolkata Knight Riders needed 66 runs off the last 4 overs in a chase of 206 and they won with 5 wickets and 5 balls to spare following Andre Russell’s stunning onslaught.
RCB had their hopes high at home on Friday. Virat Kohli had hammered a 49-ball 84. AB de Villiers hit 63 off 32. Pawan Negi and Yuzvendra Chahal had bowled beautifully and it looked look like the asking rate had climbed up even beyond Russell’s reach.
Andre Russell was not going down without a fight even if the asking rate in the last 4 overs looked way too high for the rest of the world. To make matters worse, Virat Kohli’s bowlers looked rattled when Russell muscled the first two of hs seven sixes in a frenetic finish.
Kohli didn’t hold back his emotions and vented out his frustrations on his bowlers for being erratic and bowling to Russell’s strengths (i.e. resorting to length-balls instead of yorkers). “There is no guessing there (about where they lost), the last 4 four overs that we bowled was just unacceptable. We needed to be more clever, nothing came off and we just cracked under pressure. That’s been our story this season so far. If you bowl with not enough bravery in the crucial overs, it’s always going to be difficult against power-hitters like Russell,” stated Kohli in the post-match presentation.
Russell muscled Marcus Stoinis’ medium pace, who came in for Siraj and hammered New Zealand’s Tim Southee for 29 runs to seal the deal in the penultimate over.
