Virat Kohli played a pivotal role in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s seven-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals on Thursday, helping his team end a three-match losing streak at home. Kohli’s commanding 70-run innings powered the side to a formidable total of 205, which Rajasthan struggled to chase, managing 194/9 in 20 overs. Speaking after the win, Kohli underlined the team’s approach that worked in their favour against RR.
"We've had three pretty average games at home and we discussed a few things in the batting unit that we need to get right, and I think we applied ourselves well enough today to get that total on the board. We felt like the pitch wasn't as flat as the score displayed on the scoreboard,” Kohli said after the match.
Speaking on the challenges, Kohli pointed out the importance of the toss and the template they applied to get past 200.
"I think the first challenge is to win the toss, to be honest, because the first half and second half … the second half you kind of have a look at the pitch. Also, the dew comes in, so it becomes a bit of an advantage. So we've been fighting hard to kind of get the total on the board in the first innings. We've fallen short by 25-30. Today, we were able to get past 200, so that always kept us in the game."
“I think the template is simple, you know, one of the guys to kind of bat through and the others to kind of attack around him. So I have that responsibility. I know this pitch very well, so does Devdutt. So yeah, that was basically the plan. Let Salty do his thing and then once we have a couple of wickets down, then really capitalise and rebuild, and yeah, today it paid off,” he said.