Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore is off to a splendid start to IPL 2021 with two consecutive wins. However, Kohli is not getting carried away with these victories. During the post-match presentation, Kohli insisted that the team’s feet are firmly on the ground after winning the first two league games.
“To be very honest, we are not over-excited with wins this season. We have plans. We traded Harshal (Patel) from Delhi, gave him a specific role and he’s doing a great job.”
RCB defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad, handing the Orange army their second consecutive loss by just six runs. Kohli made the perfect use of bowling options available to him to strangle SRH, especially in the death overs. After effectively using seven bowlers against his opponents in both matches, RCB has gained the top spot at the points table.
Sunrisers were playing decently in the first ten overs with only losing one wicket. But they failed an otherwise successful chase as Shahbaz Nadeem and Harshal Patel’s brilliance in the death overs turned the game around. Ahmed bowled a spectacular 17th over in which he claimed the wickets of Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, and Abdul Samad to break SRH’s backbone. Post that, the batting side never recovered and succumbed to a six-run defeat in their chase of 150 runs.
Also talking post-match Shabaz Ahmed said that even though it was a tough decision to pick someone for the 17th over he was happy that the skipper trusted his abilities. He also added how he exploited the help he got from the surface. He also insisted that Bairstow’s wicket was key in his over.
Mike Hesson also insists that RCB is taking one game at a time
After the win against SRH, RCB director of cricket operations, Mike Hesson also admitted that they are looking too ahead with these two victories. RCB is focusing on taking one game at a time in IPL 2021.
Game Day:Bowlers set up remarkable win for RCB
Maxwell‘s brilliant knock gave us a defendable total, & Shahbaz’s heroics along with Harshal’s death bowling skills helped us close out Sunrisers Hyderabad & make it 2 wins in 2 this #IPL2021.#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #SRHvRCB pic.twitter.com/q9TcTjdVlg
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) April 15, 2021
Bowling has been RCB’s achilles heel in the past few seasons. However, IPL 2021 has seen all RCB bowlers doing brilliantly in the first two games. Harshal Patel currently wearing the purple cap after taking seven wickets in the last two games. Kohli and RCB’s team management will be hoping that the momentum is maintained in the upcoming games to make sure that they book a place in the playoffs as soon as possible.