08 April,2019 08:00 AM IST | Bangalore | Satish Viswanathan
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli walks back after being dismissed for 41 in an Indian Premier League match against Delhi Capitals at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore yesterday. Pics/AFP
"No change in the XI, no change in batting order," were Virat Kohli's words at the toss. Unfortunately there was no change in the result too as Royal Challengers Bangalore went down for the sixth successive time this season. This time it was a youthful Delhi Capitals, not in great form themselves, who came out on top, chasing down the 150-run target with four wickets and seven balls to spare at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here last evening.
Two young men led the DC charge, Kagiso Rabada (4-0-21-4) with the ball first and skipper Shreyas Iyer during the chase. If Rabada's triple strike in the 18th over derailed the RCB innings, one of the victims being Kohli (41 off 33 balls, 1x4, 2x6) himself, a let off in the opening over, Parthiv Patel being the guilty party and pacer Tim Southee the unfortunate bowler, allowed Iyer (67 off 50 balls, 8x4, 2x6), on four then, to flourish. Prithvi Shaw (28 off 22 balls, 5x4) only added insult to injury when he hammered five successive fours off Southee's second over.
Delhi Capitals skipper Shreyas Iyer raises his bat after reaching his half-century against RCB yesterday
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"I decided to play positive. I did not want their bowlers to get on top of me. That was my mindset and it worked out well," said an elated Iyer after the game.
Kohli, on the other hand, was naturally frustrated. "When the mind is cluttered, you wouldn't be focused on the chances that come your way. Clarity of my mind is important specially if you want to take the 50-50 chances," he said at the post-match presentation ceremony. He wasn't talking of the Iyer let off alone as RCB have put down a number of them this season.
But what of the number of RCB batsmen settling in only to later throw it all away? "We thought 160 was going to be competitive but even with 150, had we held on to our chances, would've been difficult for them. We need to grab those chances, can't give excuses every day It was quite dry underneath [the pitch] and we knew it would be slow. The pitch didn't allow us to play freely," said Kohli while Moeen Ali (32 off 18 balls, 1x4, 3x6), easily the best RCB batsman on view this game, blamed it more on poor shot selection.
DC pacer Kagiso Rabada celebrates a wicket
AB de Villiers, Marcus Stoinis, Moeen himself as also Kohli, had all gone down after looking good for more. "I think they [DC] bowled well, but also [our] shot selection [was to blame]. We just gave our wickets away at the end and probably were not smart enough," said Ali.
The man who changed the course of the match was modest to a fault. "Another time, they could've taken six ones but in T20 cricket you want to get wickets and it happened for me that over," said Rabada of his third over that cost DC a mere five runs but saw three RCB wickets fall. "All I tried to do was to keep it simple," he said of the 18th over, easily the most decisive of the game.
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