Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has applauded Virat Kohli for playing a fighting knock in the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) IPL 2024 match against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Friday, March 29. He also appreciated his flicked six off Mitchell Starc’s bowling. Kohli scored an unbeaten 83 off 59 deliveries as RCB set KKR a 183-run target in Bengaluru as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “When Bengaluru got to bat, you expected them to do something big. The way Virat Kohli started, he played a flick shot for a six against Mitchell Starc – so beautiful, so elegant, looking like a wow. He started with a four as well.”
ALSO READ: Kirti Azad welcomes BCCI’s new directive in central contract
“Faf du Plessis played a decent first innings in Chennai, but after that, the last two innings have not been good. He played an unconventional ‘Supla’ shot and Harshit Rana dismissed him off the next ball. This team stumbled a little after Faf got out,” Chopra further observed. “Virat Kohli was batting very well at one end. Cameron Green also came in the middle and batted well, but then wickets at crucial intervals, whether it was Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) or Cameron Green. Kolkata dropped catches but despite that, they kept getting out in the end.”
Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra also added that RCB lost wickets regularly despite the KKR fielders’ poor show as well. However, Glenn Maxwell had a short stay in the middle as he was dropped by Ramandeep Singh and Sunil Narine on 11 and 21, respectively. But, he couldn’t make the most of it as Rinku Singh in the deep off Narine’s bowling put a break on his knock of a 19-ball 28.
“Dinesh Karthik came in the end and played some good slogs. Something happens to Dinesh Karthik in a World Cup year. He becomes incredible. He and Ravichandran Ashwin do something different in T20 cricket in a World Cup year. Ashwin hit (Anrich) Nortje against Delhi and Karthik hit sixes here and in the last match. The team reached 182, out of which Virat Kohli scored a 59-ball 83 at a strike rate of 140. When you see this innings in isolation, you say well played Virat Kohli, but when you see how far the Bengaluru team was behind in the end, you feel whether less runs were scored. Since wickets were falling at regular intervals, you couldn’t have expected more from Kohli,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
