Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli played down the importance of his second T20 hundred and admitted that the victory was the “ultimate target”. The 27-year-old also spoke about the toss and was quick to give credit to the cameos by KL Rahul and Shane Watson as well.
Although that win still keeps RCB in seventh place with three wins from eight games, Kohli stressed the importance of winning against Rising Pune Supergiants especially after the way in which they lost to KKR.
“The ultimate target was the victory because of how hurt we were after the last game," he said. "We needed a victory like this to pull ourselves up again, especially the kind of day we had in the field. It's very easy to lose your cool, get carry away and get frustrated. You rather take that frustration and be determined to put in that 20 per cent extra.”
"You can't do it all by yourself. Contributions from KL, Watto gave us the right kind of momentum to us through the middle, even after AB got out. Those things matter a lot. Sometimes we neglect those because one gets a milestone.”
Although Kohli broke a slew of records en route to his second T20 hundred and has 541 runs at an average of 90 in this year’s IPL and played down the importance of his hundred.
"Not that I was desperate to get one, but last time I felt like it was something I hadn't achieved," he said. "But I didn't have control over my game because we were batting first there.
“This 100, I didn’t plan to get a 100, as I said in the last game. I never looked at my score in the scoreboard, all I looked at was how many runs and balls are there… how many runs we need to score, in which over. In that process, if you get a milestone like that it feels sweet. But in an hour, or a couple of hours, when I realise what happened, then it'll feel far sweeter.”
Kohli on chasing at M Chinnaswamy Stadium
M Chinnaswamy Stadium has always been a favourable chasing ground as 27 out of the 36 matches have been by the chasing side. Kohli though was quick to note that three tosses lost had resulted in two losses.
"We had the chance to chase one down, and I backed myself to go for the target and make sure I'm there in the end and win the game for the team. In Hyderabad, I couldn't do that, I was very disappointed," Kohli said.
"If you want your team to do a certain thing, you have to go out there first and do it in front of them to convince them that this is the direction you need to go in. I failed to do that In Hyderabad and that hurt me a lot.
RCB captain also spoke about the need to understand what the bowlers are trying to bowl and always having belief in your abilities.
"It's about understanding what line the bowlers are trying to bowl at you. You need to get into the bowler's head. You have to back yourself to know if a ball is full enough, you can pierce long-off and covers.
“Doesn’t matter how much the gap is between them, even if its 20 metres, you need to hit it well enough. All about being absolutely convinced that you can get the result you want. If you are half-hearted, then the ball actually never goes for a boundary.”
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