Virat Kohli jokingly said that winning the toss is the biggest challenge in Bengaluru, after RCB ended their home losing streak with an 11-run win over the Rajasthan Royals.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru snapped their home losing streak with a tense 11-run win over Rajasthan Royals at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday. After posting 206, RCB held their nerve to defend the total in a match that swung both ways.
Virat Kohli anchored the innings with a vital 70 off 42 balls, leading from the front once again. Despite the result, Kohli shared a light-hearted comment after the game, subtly pointing to the frustration of RCB’s poor home form.
“The first challenge is winning the toss (chuckles). In the second half there is always dew. We’ve struggled to put on a par score,” Kohli said.
Notably, Bengaluru had lost all four tosses at home this season and failed to defend totals in previous matches due to heavy dew in second innings.
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Asked to bat first, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal built a strong 95-run partnership for the second wicket. Kohli scored 70 while Padikkal smashed 50 off 27 balls. Their efforts pushed RCB to a competitive 205/5. Rajasthan Royals started their chase strongly, reaching 110/2, but Josh Hazlewood delivered under pressure. He took 4 wickets for 33 runs, including a game-changing penultimate over. Hazlewood’s spell shifted momentum RCB’s way, helping seal the 11-run win.
“Look, we’ve had three pretty average games at home and we discussed a few things we need to get right as a batting unit and we applied ourselves well to get the total on board. The pitch wasn’t as flat as the score makes it look. Dew made the ball come on nicely in the second half and credit to Rajasthan for coming out and playing some good shots,” Kohli said.
“The template is now pretty simple, for one guy to bat through and the others to attack around him. Devdutt and I know this ground well. Just wanted to let Salt do his thing at the top. Today we just tried to time the ball and keep enough pressure on the opposition to keep giving us boundary balls,” he concluded.
