‘This feels amazing’

RCB captain Virat pleased after qualifying for the play-offs with two games to spare following six-run win over Punjab Kings; urges team to play even more fearlessly and target Top-2 finish

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli on Sunday said it’s an amazing feeling to qualify for the IPL play-offs with a couple of games to spare and now their aim is to finish in the Top 2 in the standings.

RCB beat Punjab Kings by six runs to make it to their second successive IPL play-offs. “Feels amazing. After 2011, we haven’t done it with games to spare. Eight wins out of 12 games is a great campaign. We have two more opportunities to finish in the Top 2. Should give us motivation to play even more fearlessly,” Kohli said after the match.

“When you don’t have any wickets on the scoreboard, you can take more risks. Which myself and Devdutt [Padikkal] have to.”

The India captain, however, said there are still areas of improvement for RCB. “15-20 runs on this ground can be crucial. We have to plug those areas. As a side, we have had an endeavour to improve, whether in losses or wins. We knew the wicket would get slower and slower. KL [Rahul] and Mayank [Agarwal] batted well, but we knew we were just two wickets from coming back into the game.”

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Super Siraj

Talking about the performance of his bowlers, Kohli said, “The resurgence of [Mohammed] Siraj, ever since he has done well in Test cricket. Harshal’s [Patel] inclusion has been outstanding. “Yuzi [Yuzvendra Chahal] has chipped in, as has Shahbaz [Nadeem]. Garton has come in. If the players don’t step up, then the campaign goes off track.”

Player of the match Glenn Maxwell, who scored 57 off 33 balls, said he has been batting well in the last two years of IPL. “Came in at a nice time to bat. Lucky to hit the first couple of risks out of the middle. To have it set up by the openers today gave us some time to get an idea of the wicket. Coming into RCB they wanted me to do the exact same role [as with Australia]. This [Sharjah] is probably the most difficult to adjust to. The spinners get it to skid on which means you have to be sharper at the start of your innings,” Maxwell said.

RCB’s Glenn Maxwell after his half century against PBKS yesterday. Pic/PTI

Punjab Kings captain Rahul said he would have been happier had his side qualified for the play-offs instead of him wearing the Orange Cap. “I wouldn’t say I haven’t enjoyed wearing it [the Orange Cap] but I would have been happier if we had qualified. It was a score that was par. Maybe 10-15 runs extra. When a guy like Maxwell comes in with that sort of form, it makes it difficult.”

Batting let us down: KL

Rahul said batting has let the team down. “With the bat, the last couple of years have been disappointing. Our batting has let us down. I’ll be lying if I say it doesn’t play on my mind that I play a role that the team demands. It’s not something that I enjoy, but when you lead the team, you have to accept the responsibility,” Rahul said.

Brief scores
RCB 164-7 in 20 overs (G Maxwell 57, D Padikkal 40; M Henriques 3-12, M Shami 3-39) beat PBKS 158-6 in 20 overs (M Agarwal 57, KL Rahul 39; Y Chahal 3-29) by six runs

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