Virat Kohli took up the captaincy for Royal Challengers Bangalore after 556 days on Thursday and led RCB to a clinical 24-run victory over Punjab Kings in Mohali on April 20. Mohammed Siraj got a four-wicket haul, he was adjudged the Player of the Match, and the Indian pacer also took home the IPL 2023 purple cap in a stunning display.
Elsewhere, Faf du Plessis scored 84 runs and set the stage along with Kohli for RCB’s third win of the IPL 2023 season. With just three wins from six matches, there were concerns about the form of the Bengaluru-based franchise but Virat shunned all that talk with a brilliant response, saying that the table doesn’t define a team’s performance.
Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony after RCB’s win, Kohli insisted that his side were not looking at the IPL 2023 points table, that’s something they will do in the later stages of the campaign.
“The table can’t define your team. It’s towards game 13 or 14 we can try and focus on what we need to do,” said the 34-year-old.
The stand-in captain also lavished praise on his opening partner, Faf du Plessis who helped RCB reach a fight-worthy total.
“Faf batted really well on that pitch. His innings ensured we had that 20-30 extra at the end. The pitch was very rough underneath, there was not enough water there I guess. There was hardly any sixes hit off the back foot against the spinners,” added Kohli.
“The strategy was to bat deep to have a crack at 190. Told them (the bowlers) that the target was more than enough. Cannot afford to take the game deep, especially when they lost 6-7 wickets. The batting lineups are deeper, but we also have options in our bowling,” he stated further.
