Virat Kohli: We are at our best when we have to fight back against the odds

SportsCafe Desk
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Virat Kohli has claimed that RCB have it in them to launch a fight back despite being in a precarious position in the points table. The RCB skipper also added that change of pace became much more effective in the daytime and Mumbai Indians’ bowler used that to their advantage.

Despite Kohli scored a half-century on his RCB return, his team could only manage to score 142 runs in 20 overs and lost to Mumbai by four wickets. The defeat left the Bangalore side languishing in 6th on the table with just a solitary win from four games. But Kohli believes that the team can bounce back after a lacklustre beginning. 

“Last year I was fit and fine but we still lost three out of the first four and we had to fight back,” Kohli told the team website. “I think we are at our best when we have to fight back against the odds and we’re placed in a similar situation now and it’ll take some character to bounce back and pull things up.”

Kohli threw his weight behind his bowlers and was impressed with their determination to put up a fight against quality batsmen. 

“Obviously when you lose that kind of a game it hurts. It’s a game of small margins and we could have had a few plays go our way right in the end as well. Credit to the guys, the way we fought in the first six was tremendous,” said Kohli. “Samuel Badree was outstanding, picking up four wickets and ended up on the losing side. Credit to Mumbai Indians, they strung an important partnership.

“Nothing taken away from the bowlers, I think we fought pretty hard. In the end, it’s a game of margins and Mumbai were better than us in the second half.”

RCB bowlers started the game pretty well and just within the first three overs of Mumbai’s innings, they had picked up four wickets – three of them were taken by Samuel Badree in the third over. But after that, the sixth-wicket partnership between Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya took the game out of RCB’s clutches.

“The wicket played differently during the day and during the second half. But nothing to be taken away from Mumbai, they deserved to win, they showed character, kept fighting till the end and that shows the depth in their batting,” said Kohli. “They still had Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) to come in, so you can see how much depth they have. They are a very explosive side and we’re wary of that. So I reckon if we had 20 more, we could have had a result our way but in hindsight, from 8 for 4, you expect to win games, but hats off to Mumbai.

“The ball got scuffed up in the daytime, a lot more than in the evening, and it wasn’t easy to get your shots away. Sixes were almost impossible; literally you had to hold your shape till the end. So change of pace became much more effective and they exploited it well I guess.” 

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