Speaking on ESPNcricinfo, Manjrekar explained how Kohli’s strike rate saw a sharp drop from 153 to 86 when he crossed the 40-run mark.
Chasing the target in 18.1 overs, CSK easily won the match.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) got off to a great start against Chennai Super Kings in their second game of the UAE leg. Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal got out of the block very early on and they put CSK’s attack on the sword in Sharjah.
Captain Kohli was dismissed for 53 runs in 41 balls. He hit 6 fours and 1 six in his innings and his strike rate was 129.26. However, he slowed down after crossing 40, and former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar was not too impressed with it.
Speaking on ESPNcricinfo, Manjrekar explained how Kohli’s strike rate saw a sharp drop from 153 to 86 when he crossed the 40-run mark. He further added that this could be an effect of the decisions taken by him recently. A week before the start of this phase, Kohli had announced that he would step down as India’s T20I captain after the World Cup and as RCB captain at the end of this season.
“Was he a little bogged down in that thing about getting to 50 because it’s a lot bigger than 153 to 86, when for no apparent reason,” Manjrekar said.
Coming back in this match, the opening pair of Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal made a tremendous start. In the first over of the match, bowled by Deepak Chahar, the duo took the innings forward by hitting 3 fours. He added 55 runs in the powerplay and Kohli was the key partner with 33 runs in 21 balls. Prior to this match, Kohli had scored more than 34 runs in the powerplay overs on only four occasions in the IPL.
However, Kohli slowed down a lot after scoring 40 off 26 balls as he could only manage the next 13 off 15 balls and it took away the momentum from RCB’s innings. Once both the openers were dismissed, RCB’s innings faltered and despite the presence of big batsmen, the team was restricted to 156 runs in their 20 overs. Chasing the target in 18.1 overs, CSK easily won the match.
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