IPL 2023: We handed them the game, we deserve to lose – Virat Kohli after loss against KKR

Royal Challengers Bangalore stand-in skipper Virat Kohli didn’t mince words after they suffered a 21-run loss against Kolkata Knight Riders at their home ground of M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Wednesday. Kohli feels they handed the opposition the game and deserve to lose.

KKR posted a par score of 200 runs on the board after Kohli won the toss and decided to field first. Jason Roy gave a blistering start to his team, smashing 56 runs off just 29 balls.

The KKR skipper Nitish Rana also scored a quickfire knock of 48 runs off just 21 balls but he had the rub of the green on his side as he was dropped twice on five and 15 by Mohammed Siraj and Harshal Patel respectively. Kohli believes the dropped catches cost them 25-30 runs extra.

Rinku Singh (18 off 10) and David Wiese (12 off 3) added the finishing touches for KKR to help them post 200 runs on the board.

On the other hand, RCB scored 58 runs in the PowerPlay overs but lost crucial wickets of in-form Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell. Virat Kohli scored 54 runs from 37 balls whereas Mahipal Lomror scored 34 but the rest of the batters failed to make any substantial contribution. RCB kept losing wickets at regular intervals and thus the required run rate kept soaring high.

Virat Kohli said in the post-match presentation, “To be honest we handed them the game. We did deserve to lose. We handed them a victory. We were certainly not up to standard. If you look at the game, we didn’t capitalize our chances. We dropped a few chances which cost us 25-30 runs. We set ourselves up really well. We ended up hitting the fielder to balls that weren’t wicket taking. It is what’s on the scoreboard and how to get them.”

He added, “Even while chasing, despite losing wickets we were one partnership away from being in the game. We needed one partnership to get us home. We need to be switched on and not give away soft plays. We have won one and lost one on the road. It is not something that makes us nervous. We need to win some away games to be in good shape for the later stages of the tournament.”

Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to get back to winning ways in their next match against Lucknow Super Giants on Monday.