‘I Love This Game and Hate It Too’: Virat After Scoring 72 Runs

RCB skipper Virat Kohli played an unbeaten innings of 72 runs, thereby guiding his side to their 3rd win in 4 games.

Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper scored 72 runs after a string of low scores in first three matches of the IPL 2020

(Photo: BCCI/IPL)

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have started their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 campaign on a great note. RCB is now in the second position in the points table with three wins in the four games they have played.

After what happened last year (RCB won their first game of IPL 2019 after losing six games in a row), this is a great start for the Bangalore-based team.

RCB won their third game after beating the Rajasthan Royals in Abu Dhabi, by 8 wickets on Saturday. Another box ticked for the team through that win was skipper Virat Kohli coming back amongst the runs.

After a lull phase in the first three games, with the scores of 14, 1 and 3, Virat Kohli had ample time to build an innings, spend some time in the middle and get his team to a comprehensive victory, chasing a not-so-daunting total. It helped his cause that the 20-year old Devdutt Padikkal was scoring at a brisk pace at the other end, so he didn’t have to take extra risks.

When asked about his form after he played an innings of unbeaten 72 runs, Virat Kohli chuckled and said that he told the Rajasthan Royals’ wicket-keeper Jos Buttler that he loves this game and hates it too because of its nature.

"It's a funny game you know. It's an amazing game," Kohli said at the post-match presentation to Ian Bishop. "I was telling Jos when I was batting in there, 'I love this game and I hate it too'.

"It's something that you need to understand as a player. When you play so much of cricket, you do feel like at times you're not in control of what you want to do. But more than that, you feel disappointed when the team's not doing well. But when the team's doing well, you feel like 'Okay I've got some more space to figure out how I want to go about applying my kind of batting for the benefit of the team.’ ”

Head Coach Simon Katich, however, said in the post-match press conference that they believed he was never out of form. He said that the last shot Kohli played in the Super Over against Mumbai Indians towards the boundary might have helped him and he has carried on from there.

“What we see in the nets from training to training is someone that’s super professional. He’s looked like he’s timing the ball beautifully and he works so hard at his game it was only a matter of time before he got runs in the middle. It was great to see him get out there today, control that chase - which we know he does so well - and hopefully now that will kickstart the rest of his IPL.”

Simon Katich on Virat Kohli, Head Coach, RCB

RCB will be chuffed to see their captain amongst the runs and their lead bowler as the highest wicket-taker till now. They will now face the Delhi Capitals on Monday, in Dubai, who have the same number of wins as them.