Virat Kohli Shuts Down Critics After Guiding Royal Challengers Bengaluru To Third Win In IPL 2024
Ahmedabad: Virat Kohli took a dig at the critics who were doubting his numbers in the ongoing Indian Premier League and stated he knows his game better than anyone. Kohli was referring to the former cricketer-turned-experts who spoke about his strike rate in IPL 2024 at a time when others were going bonkers from the ball one. For the unknown, despite Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s poor form, Kohli still sits at the top of highest run-getters list with exact 500 runs.
The former RCB skipper didn’t disappoint on Sunday too as he played the anchor’s role while RCB chased down Gujarat Titans’s 200/3 quite easily. Although, RCB lost captain Faf du Plessis early, Kohli, along with Will Jacks put on an unbeaten 166 runs for the second wicket to guide their team to their third win in the season. While Kohli was unbeaten on 44-ball 70, Jacks smashed his maiden IPL ton.
“There’s a reason why you do it for 15 years, for me, it’s only about doing the work, people can talk anything they want to, they can talk about me not able to push on (all the talks about strike-rate), not playing spin well, but you yourself know the game better,” Kohli said after the game.
Showering praise on Jacks, Kohli revealed the Englishman was not in a right mood and was annoyed for not being able to strike the ball well. Asked what was the talk in between, Kohli said it was all about batting with calmness.
“Initially when he came to bat, he was annoyed that he wasn’t able to strike the ball as he wanted to. The only talk was to for him to stay calm, we know how explosive he can be when he gets going. The over from Mohit was the game changer, I was just happy to stay around and watch him go.
“I thought we would win in 19 overs, but to do it in 16 was absolutely brilliant. The wicket did start to get better as the first innings wore on, the ball was coming nicely onto the bat,” he added.
Jacks, who was named Player of the Match, stated it was amazing to bat alongside Kohli. “It’s amazing, he’s a legend of the game and is someone everyone looks up to. To spend some time in the middle is a great feeling a huge learning curve. When I go way from the IPL, I’ll try to take all on board. I need to be adaptable at the beginning of the innings and start off quicker,” he said.