MI wary of RCB's run-machine Kohli

Virat Kohli during RCB’s practice session at Wankhede. Pic/RCB

The last time Virat Kohli batted at the Wankhede Stadium, he scored a brilliant century (117) as India beat New Zealand in the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup last November. Cut to the current scenario, and the last time Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) Kohli batted in the ongoing IPL, he scored yet another scintillating century (113 not out against Rajasthan Royals last Saturday).

Big guns need to fire

In fact, Kohli has been in such sublime form that he has aggregated a mammoth 316 runs in five games, including one century and two fifties at an impressive strike rate of 146.29. As brilliant as these numbers sound on the individual front however, RCB's IPL-17 campaign so far has been a collective failure, having lost four out of five games. The reason for this has been that Kohli's batting colleagues haven't quite fired. Some big names like skipper Faf du Plessis (109 runs) and Aussie big-hitters Cameron Green (68) and Glenn Maxwell (32) are desperately searching for impactful scores.

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RCB pacer Reece Topley has no hesitation in admitting that the RCB batting department, except for Kohli, hasn't quite clicked. "Virat Kohli has clearly had to take on a lot of the load in the run scoring department [for RCB]. He has been consistent for RCB for a long time, which is amazing. The loyalty that he has shown to the franchise is incredible. I don't think anyone needs to be an expert to look at everyone else's [batting] performances and say that they haven't been up to scratch, but the exciting part is that it's still relatively young in the tournament, so there's a lot still to play for. There's a lot of time to turn it around and still showcase how good we are," Topley said at the pre-match press conference at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.

At RCB's batting practice last evening, skipper Du Plessis and Maxwell went about hitting the ball out of the park.

‘Hopefully he goes cheaply'

Maxwell, in particular, was aiming for the lofted hits straight back over the bowler's head and nailed it almost always. Even if one among these two click alongside Kohli, the Mumbai Indians could be in for a tough time. The hosts obviously know this and are hoping the law of averages catches up with Kohli. "You have world-class batters right through the [RCB] batting order and Virat's on top of that list. He's playing well. It's great for the competition when he's scoring runs. But I think he has scored enough, so hopefully he can get out cheaply in this match and give something for the Mumbai fans to cheer," said MI's Tim David with a laugh.

316
No. of runs scored by Virat Kohli in five matches @ 105.33