Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opener Virat Kohli couldn’t fire in their loss against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their IPL 2023 encounter on April 17 in Bengaluru and was bowled by Akash Singh for 6 runs.
RCB were set a huge 227-run target by CSK and despite some brutal hitting by RCB skipper Faf du Plessis (62 off 33 balls) and Glenn Maxwell (76 off 36), who shared a 126-run stand, RCB fell short by 8 runs in the end, finishing on 218/8.
Analyzing Virat Kohli’s dismissal, former Australian pacer Shaun Tait reckoned that the former RCB skipper had made up his mind to up the ante right from the start given the huge target they were chasing.
Speaking about the in-form batter’s early dismissal, Tait told ESPNCricinfo: “I think Virat Kohli came out very hard. You’re probably not going to sit there and critique that when you’re chasing that sort of score. Virat decided that the was just going to go every ball. It’s not reckless batting and it’s just a decision he made to try and assert himself early on.”
Kohli perished while trying to play attacking shot off left-arm pacer Akash Singh. However, he could only manage to get an inside edge and the ball crashed onto his stumps after ricocheting off his shoe.
Virat Kohli Wants To Impose Himself On The Bowlers: Wasim Jaffer
During the same discussion, Wasim Jaffer also shared his thoughts on Virat Kohli’s rare failure in this IPL 2023 season. He pointed out how Kohli has looked to score runs quickly in the powerplay and then slows down in the latter stages once the spinners come into the attack.
“Virat Kohli, even while batting first, has come out really hard. He looks like he has come out with a lot of energy and wants to impose himself on the bowlers, whereas Faf can do both roles. We saw against Mumbai how Faf took it on early. He was more aggressive in that chase, but he can play the other role as well. Kohli, I feel really goes hard in the powerplay and then we have seen that his strike rate comes down when the spinners are on. It’s a considerable change in his batting,” Jaffer added.
Maxwell was the top performer with the bat for RCB and threatened to take the game away from CSK, scoring 76 runs off just 36 balls, with 8 sixes to his name.