Virat Kohli's Dismal Play In 36th Match Against Sunrisers Hyderabad

The Royal Challengers Bangalore star player, Virat Kohli, was unable to shine during the 36th match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai. SRH completely beat RCB by nine wickets with just 68 runs in 16.1 overs.

Poor performance by Kohli

Despite being the standard-bearer for Indian cricket, Kohli, once again, failed to deliver an impressive performance during the last match against SRH. He got dismissed for two consecutive golden ducks after having his first one in Tuesday’s match against the Lucknow Super Giants.

Kohli was only able to score 119 runs from eight matches and had 13 innings without a half-century this season. The batsman is currently at an average of 17.00.

The loss of RCB was the second-lowest total in their history. Back then, in 2017, RCH had hit their lowest score of 49 against Kolkata Knights Riders. This record is the sixth-lowest total in the league’s history. The team had encountered less than 100 points eight times, which is the second-most in league history, trailing only the Delhi Capitals, who had done so ten times.

Regarding the team’s performance, captain Faf Du Plessis admitted the match was off even from the first four overs. "Those first four overs....it’s probably not losing four or five wickets up front. It was a little spicy in those first few overs; the balls swung a little bit," he said. However, he refused to back down easily as he kept trying to find a way, even if it meant sacrificing a few runs to get through the swinging ball.

SRH consecutive blows

The attack on SRH was mostly credited to Marco Jansen. In a single over, Jansen made an impressive play by removing three of RCB’s star players–Du Plessis, Kohli, and Anuj Rawat.

Jansen left Du Plessis stunned as he deceived the captain with the amount of turn the ball got after bouncing off the pitch. The ball went faster and struck the stumps before Du Plessis could even do anything.

Jansen moved his target to Kohli, where he trapped Kohli, who was about to go for a cover drive. Unfortunately, his bat missed the ball, and Aiden Markram easily caught it. This marked Kohli’s second consecutive golden duck.

Three balls later, Jansen joined Markram to deliver another blow and remove Rawat on the last ball of his over. The three blows left RCB at 8/3 and left them to struggle to 49/7 after 10 overs. Jansen concluded the match with 3-25 from his four overs.

Teammate Williamson made a remark about Jansen’s impressive play. "Off the field, he's always up for a laugh. He's always very focused and very clear about what he wants to do. He clearly had an outstanding match today, and he's got the skills to do that,” Williamson said. “When the ball is swinging a little bit, and there's a little bit of grass on the surface, he's a real threat to us. So it was great that he was able to get the rewards today.”

T Natarajan, on the other hand, contributed to his side by having bowling figures of 3/10 in 3 overs. He beat his own best record of bowling figures of 33/37 from his previous match against KKR this season. Natarajan also boosted SRH’s net run rate (NRR) to 0.691 and helped the team secure the second spot on the table.

Gian Chacko

Sports enthusiast with love for cricket, football and sports in general. Holds 10+ years of following and writing about sports and lately also betting.