News Analysis India

Tag: Eliminator

  • Tried to create culture for youngsters, have given my best, says Kohli as he bids goodbye to RCB captaincy

    By PTI

    SHARJAH: Virat Kohli expects the new leadership group in Royal Challengers Bangalore to maintain the “culture” of giving opportunities to youngsters for playing expressive cricket as his innings as captain of the side ended without an IPL trophy.

    RCB was knocked out of this year’s edition after losing the Eliminator to KKR by four wickets but Kohli promised to stay with the team as a player because “loyalty” is everything for him.

    “I have tried my best to create a culture here where youngsters could come in and play with freedom and belief. It is something I have done with India as well,” Kohli, who led the side for a decade, said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

    Kohli finished with below-par 66 wins to 70 defeats in 140 games as RCB skipper, something that will certainly be a blot in his chequered career.

    “I have given my best. I don’t know how the response has been, but I have given 120% to this franchise every time, which is something I will now do as a player. It is a great time to regroup and restructure for the next three years with people who will take this ahead,” the outgoing skipper said.

    “I don’t see myself playing anywhere else. Loyalty matters more to me than worldly pleasures. I would be in the RCB till the last day I play in the IPL.”

    ALSO READ: Narine made it look easy with his outstanding spell, says KKR captain Eoin Morgan

    On the match, Kohli felt that it was trio of Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy who tilted the match in KKR’s favour.

    “Those middle overs where their spinner dominated the game was the difference. They kept bowling in tight areas and kept picking wickets. We had a great start and it was about quality bowling and not bad batting. They thoroughly deserve to win this one and be in the next round.”

    Kohli was happy that his team fought till the end.

    “The fight till the end with the ball has been the hallmark of our team. That one big over (22 runs) in the middle deflated our chances. We fought till the last over and made an amazing game out of it.”

    Kohli admitted that the par score could have been around 155.

    “Fifteen runs less with the bat and a couple of big overs with the ball cost us. Sunil Narine has always been a quality bowler and today he once again showed it. Shakib, Varun and him created pressure and didn’t allow our batsmen to get away in the middle.”

  • IPL 2021, Eliminator: Royal Challengers Bangalore win toss, elect to bat against Kolkata Knight riders

    By PTI

    SHARJAH: Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat against Kolkata Knight riders in the IPL Eliminator here on Monday.

    Both the teams are unchanged from their previous matches.

    Chennai Super Kings have already booked their place in the summit clash on October 15.

    Teams: Kolkata Knight Riders: Eoin Morgan (C), Venkatesh Iyer, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik, Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Shivam Mavi, Lockie Ferguson and Varun Chakravarthy.

    Royal Challengers Banaglore: Virat Kohli (C), Devdutt Padikkal, KS Bharat, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dan Christian, George Garton, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal and Mohammad Siraj.

  • Mushfiqur Rahim apologises to Nasum Ahmed for misbehaving on the field

    Mushfiqur Rahim has apologised to his Beximco Dhaka team-mate Nasum Ahmed for misbehaving with him twice during the Bangabandhu T20 Cup Eliminator against Fortune Barishal on Monday. In a match that Dhaka eventually won by nine runs, to remain in contention for a place in the final, Rahim’s behaviour with his team-mates, notwithstanding their fielding errors, was bizarre.

    In the 13th over of the chase, when the Barishal batsman Afif Hossain started counter-attack, Rahim seemed to lose the plot. When the left-hander turned one towards the vacant short midwicket area for a single, both Rahim and Ahmed chased after the ball and after reaching their first, Rahim made a threatening gesture towards Ahmed, seemingly for not reaching there before him.

    Dhaka started to make more errors. Yasir Ali couldn’t cut off and later chase down Hossain’s simple push to cover, resulting in a gifted boundary. Al-Amin fumbled a throw from the deep, with Hossain halfway down the crease. Then when he mistimed a scoop, resulting in a simple catch for Rahim, the Dhaka captain lost it.

    Ahmed, fielding at short fine leg, lightly collided with Rahim as he was completing the catch, which was enough for him to threaten to throw a punch at his team-mate. Having avoided making an apology at the post-match presentation, Rahim made one on his Facebook page on Tuesday morning.

  • RCB coach Katich came in defense of Virat Kohli, this thing somewhere in favor of Virat

    Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) head coach Simon Katich has defended skipper Virat Kohli, who faced criticism for not winning the IPL title under his captaincy for eight consecutive years, saying RCB still needed him. RCB are out of the tournament after losing by six wickets to the IPL eliminator from Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday. With this defeat, Virat’s dream of winning the IPL for the eighth consecutive year under his captaincy was broken and he is facing severe criticism.

    Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has also said after RCB is out of the tournament that RCB should now look for a new option in place of Virat for the captaincy. Gambhir said that the time of eight years is too long and if a team fails to win a single title during this time then the captain should be held accountable for this. He said that he is not against Virat but now the time has come that this 32-year-old player should step aside from the responsibility of captaincy in IPL.

    Katich, while defending Virat’s leadership, specifically mentioned his two important features in a media interaction on Saturday. According to Katich, the first feature is that Virat guides the players very well and his second quality is that he motivates the young players to struggle till the end.

    The RCB coach believes that Virat has provided the best guidance to opener Devdutt Padikal, who made his IPL debut from this season. RCB batsman Devdutt has scored 473 runs this season, including five half-centuries. Katich said, “We are very lucky to have these 11 weeks of work with Virat. Virat is very professional and all the players here respect him very much. “

  • Pumped up David Warner says, “we have beaten RCB in 2016 finals, we can do the same in eliminator

    In Dream11 IPL 2020, after registering a comprehensive ten-wicket win over Mumbai Indians, SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper David Warner is now looking forward to eliminator against Royal Challengers Bangalore. SRH will face off against Virat Kohli led RCB in the eliminator on 6th November. According to Warner, SRH has earlier also beaten in the IPL 2016 finals and they are capable to do the same this time as well.“RCB are a very good side. They have a lot of dangerous players. We beat them in the 2016 final. Another do-or-die game. Hopefully, we can carry the momentum from this MI game and win,” Warner signed off.

    Warner also hailed the resilience shown by every player of his side in the last few games in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. With this win, SRH qualified for the playoffs and the side finished with 14 points from 14 matches. Warner and Wriddhiman Saha played unbeaten knocks of 85 and 58 respectively as SRH defeated Mumbai Indians by ten wickets with 17 balls to spare.