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'This is our strength': Kohli opens up as RCB light the hope despite the defeat against DC!

By Annamalai, 03 November, 2020
Indian Premier League, IPL 2020, Virat Kohli

This was one of the most important games in the series as the Delhi Capitals faced the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a very crucial encounter. In what had become a gamechanger in the race to the playoffs, the match was hosted by Abu Dhabi. Delhi Capitals won the toss and decided to bowl first. 

It was a well-controlled bowling attack from the Delhi team. It was led by the experienced Ravichandran Ashwin with a very good bowling effort picking up one wicket for 18 runs in his four overs. For RCB, though Philippe fell early, Devdutt Padikkal took control along with Virat Kohli. When the partnership was going well, Kohli was dismissed for 29. 

Padikkal was strong enough to score his half-century in 41 balls before he was dismissed by a brilliant delivery from Nortje. AB de Villiers, the savior forever was handed over the responsibility of taking the team to a respectable total yet again. And he proved his worth once again scoring 35 runs in the death overs from 21 balls. The good little cameo by Shivam Dube took the RCB to a decent total of 153 runs in their 20 overs. They knew that they were definitely 20 runs short.

RCB was hoping for some magic in their bowling. They were successful in dismissing Prithvi Shaw early but Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane had put up a match-winning partnership. Both of them were relentless in their batting display with Dhawan scoring a 54 and Rahane scoring a 60. Though the Delhi Capitals were struggling a bit in the middle overs, it wasn't a tough task for them to chase this target, which they did in the 19th over with six wickets in hand. Chris Morris, the main strike bowler for the RCB had met with an injury in the middle of the game and bowled only 2 overs, which was a setback for Kohli.

The series is well poised now. With Delhi Capitals getting qualified for the playoffs with 16 points after this victory, the RCB have also qualified now because they have a better net run rate than the Kolkata Knight Riders who also are with the same 14 points. As three teams have secured their berth in the playoffs, it would be interesting to see whether the Sunrisers Hyderabad or the Kolkata Knight Riders would become the fourth team to fill up the fourth spot in entering the playoffs. It all depends on the match between the Mumbai Indians and the Sunrisers Hyderabad to decide that. An SRH win will take them through. If MI wins, then the KKR will enter the playoffs. Hold your breath, teams.

As the match between SRH and MI, scheduled on Tuesday, would be finishing the spell of the league, the current edition is nearing to unfold the climax of who's going to lift the title. As Royal Challengers Banglore and Delhi Capitals have come back stronger in the current season, both the teams are hoping to have a breakthrough in their respective IPL careers as both of them hadn't won the title so far. Though RCB had defeated on Monday, Kohli's fleet had a lenient passage to the playoffs. 

Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, Kohli said, "It's a mixed bag. As I said at the toss, you come to games to try and get the result your way. We are happy that we have qualified." RCB Skipper cited that it would be nice if the team had placed in the top two. Kohli said, "Top two would've been very really nice. But I think we've played good enough cricket to earn a qualification spot". 

He stated,  "You could say just before the qualification, the mindset was a little bit tentative. We have a shot, an opportunity and that's all we want as a team. I'm sure the guys will be excited about what's ahead for us". By citing that the team just has to focus on its strengths to win matches, Kohli said, "With the ball, we were decent, probably we could have a strong powerplay, which is our strength".

 

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