Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra on Saturday came down heavily on Royal Challengers Bengaluru for being slow in their approach. RCB became the first team in IPL 2024 to lose a home game when they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets. RCB batted first and scored 182. KKR, in reply, scored the runs with over 3 overs remaining. Aakash Chopra appreciated the fast start of KKR to their innings and compared it with Virat Kohli’s innings.
RCB have so far lost two matches out of the three they have played. Their bowlers are leaking runs from every corner, and no other batter other than Virat Kohli seemed to be stepping up to take responsibility.
Aakash Chopra, speaking on his YouTube video, was appreciative of KKR’s batting. He pointed out that while Kohli score 83 of 59 balls, KKR had scored 85 in the powerplay itself, taking the game away from RCB.
“When Sunil Narine opens, the template is absolutely clear – ‘Either I or you will not remain’. He plays in that fashion, tries to hit sixes. Everyone knows that you need to repeatedly bowl bouncers and yorkers, but if you don’t get success in that, just like Bengaluru didn’t get in the first six overs, he takes the match far away from your grasp,” he said.
“Phil Salt was also there with him. Phil Salt hit 18 runs in the first over itself. He was brilliant. Just to put things in context, the opposing team bowled well but Kohli played 59 balls to reach 83 and Kolkata had already scored 85 in 5.5 overs. Whether it was Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Siraj or Yash Dayal, everyone was hit a lot,” Chopra added.
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