Can’t afford to lose four-five wickets for 20 runs, it’s a wake-up call for us: Kohli
Abu Dhabi, Sep 21 (PTI): Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli on Monday rued his side’s batting collapse in a nine-wicket drubbing by Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL here and termed it a wake-up call for the team.
Electing to bat, RCB were all out for a paltry 92 in Kohli’s 200th IPL game and KKR chased down the target in just 10 overs by reaching to 94/1 with Shubhman Gill (48) and debutant Venkatesh Iyer (41 not out) adding 82 runs for the opening wicket.
“We were 42 odd for one and then lost about five wickets within 20 runs, which is a very difficult situation to come back from. Bit of a collapse there for us, bit of a wake-up call and might as well have this at the start of the second leg so that we know exactly what we need to work on,” Kohli said after the match. “It was important to get a good partnership on this surface. You can’t afford to lose four or five wickets within 20 runs. We didn’t expect that much dew to kick in so early, we couldn’t have predicted that.” Asked if the result was due to rustiness, Kohli said, “You can make the argument that we were rusty but as professional cricketers, you are expected to turn up and adjust to the formats, that’s the dynamic of world cricket today.