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Former India opener Aakash Chopra took a cheeky dig as he put numbers into context to highlight where Royal Challengers Bengaluru lost the IPL 2024 match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday. Chopra compared Virat Kohli’s innings to Kolkata’s powerplay onslaught in the match where the visitors won by seven wickets in the chase of 186, with 19 balls to spare.
Kohli carved out a second-straight fifty in IPL 2024, as he scored 83 off 59 against KKR. He did find himself in the midst of a 65-run second-wicket stand and a 42-run third wicket stand with Australia’s Cameron Green and Glenn Maxwell, but the efforts were not enough as KKR’s slower-delivery ploy helped then restrict RCB to 186 for six.
Sunil Narine and Phil Salt then got KKR off to a flier at the Chinnaswamy, before Venkatesh Iyer added to RCB bowlers’ woes with a fifty as they scripted a seven-wicket win.
Speaking on the match on his YouTube channel, Aakash highlighted that Narine and Salt’s powerplay onslaught of 85 runs in 36 balls hand single-handedly overshadowed Kohli’s efforts.
“When Sunil Narine opens, the template is absolutely clear – ‘Either I or you will not remain’. He plays in that fashion, tries to hit sixes. Everyone knows that you need to repeatedly bowl bouncers and yorkers, but if you don’t get success in that, just like Bengaluru didn’t get in the first six overs, he takes the match far away from your grasp,” he said.
“Phil Salt was also there with him. Phil Salt hit 18 runs in the first over itself. He was brilliant. Just to put things in context, the opposing team bowled well but Kohli played 59 balls to reach 83 and Kolkata had already scored 85 in 5.5 overs. Whether it was Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Siraj or Yash Dayal, everyone was hit a lot.”
The ex-India cricketer was all praise for KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir, who persisted with Narine as an opener despite his failure in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
“I feel Gautam has given them a lot of confidence. Sunil Narine opening has Gautam Gambhir’s imprint. Andre Russell bowling at the death also has a little imprint of Gautam Gambhir. He is empowering them slightly and the same can be said about Venkatesh Iyer. He has been empowered to hit fours and sixes,” Chopra explained.
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