‘PLEASED TO SEE KOHLI RETURN TO FORM’

Match 67 of IPL 2022 at the Wankhede Stadium saw Virat Kohli ending his lean patch with a vintage knock of 73 off 54 balls to carry Royal Challengers Bangalore to fourth place in the points table by defeating Gujarat Titans by eight wickets, and keeping their playoffs hopes alive.

It was no surprise that Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis was pleased with Kohli being back to his best when his team needed him the most, killing the chase of 169 with a 115-run opening stand. “Throughout the season we haven’t done as much as we have liked. But you still need to back these big players. Virat had been putting in the hard yards in the nets. I play the role with him and get him pumped up. He has got so much emotions and hype pulls you through. It is as if you are playing a rugby game,” said du Plessis after the match.

While it was jubilation for Bangalore, Gujarat huffed and puffed their way to 168, riding on captain Hardik Pandya’s unbeaten 62 besides David Miller’s 34. But the Gujarat skipper admitted that they were ten runs short of the total they would have liked to defend. “It was just about a par score. Batting we did get 55 or 60 (50 runs) in the last five when the ball was stopping a bit but 168 we were quite happy. We wanted to give him (Ferguson) the opportunity a bit but the wicket was holding a bit where we thought the ones who could bowl slower balls or take the pace away would be a better option. We kind of got it back in the game as well but Maxwell playing the way he played, and a couple of chances there, we were 10 runs short in the end,” was Pandya’s assessment of the match.