Kohli: We can’t keep giving excuses every game

Indian Premier League

Cricket365
April 8, 2019

Virat Kohli says Royal Challengers Bangalore need to stop giving “excuses” for their poor start to the 2019 Indian Premier League and do something about it.

RCB suffered a four-wicket defeat to the Delhi Capitals on Sunday and they have now lost all six of their matches in this season’s IPL.

Gary Kirsten’s side were put into bat by the Capitals, but once again they failed to set a competitive target, despite the best efforts of captain Kohli, who top-scored with 41.

Moeen Ali (32) was the only other player to record a score of over 20 for RCB, who posted a total of 149-8 off their 20 overs, with the pick of the Delhi bowlers being South African paceman Kagiso Rabada, who finished with figures of 4-21.

In response, Delhi chased down their target inside 19 overs, with Shreyas Iyer top-scoring with a knock of 67, as RCB’s bowling attack once again disappointed with only Navdeep Saini making any inroads into the Capitals batting line-up.

After the match, Kohli admitted the time for making excuses is now over and RCB must start producing improved performances with both bat and ball.

“We need to grab our chances when they come our way. We can’t keep give excuses every game,” the India captain told reporters. “We weren’t good enough on the day again. That’s the whole story of our season so far.”

Kohli was also critical of his own performance, admitting he was not happy with the way he was dismissed after being caught by Iyer off the bowling of Rabada.

He added: “I wasn’t too happy to get out to a ball like that. I thought if I had stayed we could have added 25-30 more to the total.”