As Delhi Daredevils coasted to a convincing seven-wicket win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday, skipper Virat Kohli believed his side were 50 runs in their second home game of the IPL here at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The hosts were on course to a huge target when Kohli and AB de Villiers were in the middle smashing half-centuries each but Daredevils’ experienced bowling during the death applied the brakes on the scoring rate. A visibly furious Kohli admitted, “We felt we were 50 runs short, and were targeting 200. May be if I had faced 15 balls of the last four overs, we would have got to 215 as well.”
With Kohli and de Villiers firing in both games, Chris Gayle’s bad patch isn’t a worry for the team management. “Well, we got 230 in the first match and then almost 200 in this match, without Gayle firing. Guess what would happen when he fires! Four guys — Gayle, AB de Villiers, myself and Shane Watson — of international calibre playing in one team, it always helps. You can rely on those four and turn the game for you,” he said.
After a two-day break, RCB will face Mumbai Indians on Wednesday in their first away game at Wankhede. “I am sure he will come good at some stage of the tournament. Probably, he may get hundred for us when it’s required the most. I am not too worried about Gayle, because the other guys are stepping up nicely,” claimed Kohli.
Declaring Gayle as the ‘standout player’ in the RCB unit, Kohli believes the fans expect him to fire every game. “Chris takes lot of pride playing for RCB. He has been a standout player for us. I think people just expect a lot out of him every T20 match he plays because he is good at it and has scored 17 centuries, which is not a joke. So, expectations are high and Gayle wants to live up to them,” he said.
In the concluding stages of the first innings, an adventurous Sarfaraz Khan too departed quickly. “What Sarfaraz did in the last game, it is not easy to repeat that feat in every game In first half of the game, 75 per cent, we were on the top, and they came back, 25 per cent, in last four overs, took the game away, right from the beginning. Quinton (de Kock) with Karun (Nair) coasted the team to victory in last over — I think it was commendable effort,” he said.
