[Watch] Virat Kohli boosts the team with words of motivation after being crowned RCB's Player of the Match for IPL 2024 clash against KKR

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Virat Kohli was one of the few positives for the franchise in their humbling seven-wicket defeat to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL). RCB suffered their first home defeat of the season on Friday, March 29, as they were outplayed by Shreyas Iyer and company.

After being put into bat first by KKR, the RCB batters once again struggled to have a say in the contest. Virat Kohli was at his best, taking on Mitchell Starc and the others, and ended up with an unbeaten 83 runs off 59 deliveries as RCB posted 182-6 in the first innings.

While the consensus was that the score was a par total due to the pitch not being flat as usual, the KKR batters proved everyone wrong by scoring 85 runs in the powerplay. They eventually chased down the score with 19 deliveries to spare and walked away not only with the points but also a huge early boost to their net run rate.

The RCB dressing room cast a grim look after the defeat, but they went on with their ritual to award the team's player of the match, which in this case was Virat Kohli.

The ace batter began his victory speech on a light note after being awarded the sponsored hamper, but shed light on the defeat and how the team can improve in the games to come.

"I really look forward to this hamper. Every night I think about it. But, on a more serious note, we had a tough night, we all know that. We are much better than that so, as long as we accept it, and move forward with the same courage, and the same belief in our skills. That's all we can come up with, so let's stay on that path," Kohli said.

On the back of his second successive fifty in IPL 2024, Kohli overtook Heinrich Klaasen to claim the Orange Cap. The former skipper has scored 181 runs in three matches at a strike rate of 141.

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"Virat Kohli was struggling to hit the ball just because there was lack of pace and the two-paceness" - Faf du Plessis

RCB skipper Faf du Plessis, who was dismissed in the second over of the innings to Harshit Rana, touched upon the slowness of the wicket in the first half. The home side had a prolific powerplay, scoring 61 runs off it, but lost their way in the middle overs.

The batters struggled against Andre Russell and his off-pace deliveries in particular and lost steam by the time the innings entered its final phase.

On the flip side, the KKR batters did not struggle like their counterparts did on the same wicket, and were perhaps helped by RCB's tame bowling effort as well.

"Strange one, first innings we thought that the wicket was very two-paced, you could see that when the guys bowled the cutters, back of a length, the guys really struggled. We thought it was a decent score knowing that it gets a little bit easier in the evening, there was a little bit of dew that came in. Looking at the way we batted in the first innings, even if you have someone in there, Virat was struggling to hit the ball just because there was lack of pace and the two-paceness," Faf du Plessis said during the post-match presentation.

RCB are set to play their third home match on the trot, when they take on the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Tuesday, April 2.