Standing-in captain for Royal Challengers Bangalore Virat Kohli acknowledged that his team 'deserved to lose' against the struggling Kolkata Knight Riders, who were in the middle of a four-match losing run. In IPL 2023, Nitish Rana's team defeated RCB twice; it was their second victory against the Bengaluru-based team and their fifth straight triumph overall.
While Kohli hammered a fifty, his fifth of the year, the rest of the batting order crumbled under the weight of the difficult chase without providing the stand-in captain with the necessary support.
The 34-year-old was brutally honest after his team's appalling performance and acknowledged that they were rightfully on the losing side since they missed key important catches in the outfield and allowed KKR to reach 200/5 in 20 overs.
We gave them the game, to be honest. We were deserving of defeat. We gave them the advantage. We definitely fell short of expectations. Looking at the game, you can see that we missed our opportunities. We missed a few opportunities, and it cost us 25 to 30 runs,” Virat remarked in his post-match speech.
Mahipal Lomror and Kohli did form a key partnership, but when he left the game after contributing 34 runs to the cause, RCB's lack of partnerships reared its ugly head.
Virat said that they were only needing one more partnership to win the game. He was especially dissatisfied with some of his hitters' easy dismissals.
We prepared ourselves really well. In the end, we struck the fielder with balls that didn't result in a wicket. What's on the scoreboard and how to obtain them are what matter. Despite losing wickets while chasing, we were still just needing one partnership to stay in the match. To bring us home, we need a single alliance. We must be alert and not concede easy moves, he said.
The RCB played their sixth and last game in the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium this season. They will play their next five games away from Bengaluru before making their final trip back there on May 21.
Road victories are crucial, and Kohli claimed that his team was up for the challenge.
“On the road, we have a win and a loss. We aren't afraid of anything at the moment. To be prepared for the latter phases of the competition, we need to win several away games,” he said.
