'The table can’t define your team' - Virat Kohli after RCB's clinical win over PBKS in IPL 2023

Royal Challengers Bangalore returned to the winning track in the Indian Premier League 2023 as they beat Punjab Kings by 24 runs on Thursday, April 20 at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali. After being put in to bat first, RCB posted 174/4 in the first innings as Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis scored brilliant half-centuries to do the bulk of the scoring for RCB.

In retaliation, Punjab were bundled out for 150 in the second innings as Mohammed Siraj picked up 4/21 in his four-over spell. The win was more special for RCB fans as it came under Virat Kohli’s captaincy, who was the stand-in skipper for his side with Du Plessis being replaced by Impact Player Vijaykumar Vyshak in the second innings. Notably, Du Plessis had earlier fallen on his ribs which is why, he decided to stay out of the field during RCB's fielding, re-assigning the leadership role to Kohli.

With this win, RCB climbed to the fifth position in the points table having won three matches out of six. Following their clinical performance Kohli said that the team was not focused on the points table at the moment and would look at it during the last few games of the league stage.

“The table can’t define your team. It’s towards game 13 or 14 we can try and focus on what we need to do," said Kohli at the post-match presentation.

RCB got off to a fiery start as openers Kohli and Du Plessis added 137 runs for the first wicket off 98 balls. Kohli went on to score 59 off 47 balls while his opening partner scored 84 off 56 balls. The RCB captain further praised Du Plessis for his knock and said that the wicket was rough underneath.

“Faf batted really well on that pitch. His innings ensured we had that 20-30 extra at the end. The pitch was very rough underneath, there was not enough water there I guess. There was hardly any sixes hit off the back foot against the spinners," added Kohli.

'Told them the target was more than enough' - Kohli's pep talk to bowlers as RCB claimed four in the powerplay

The 34-year-old further credited the bowlers for picking up four wickets in the powerplay and breaking the back of the opposition’s batting.

“The strategy was to bat deep to have a crack at 190. Told them (the bowlers) that the target was more than enough. Cannot afford to take the game deep, especially when they lost 6-7 wickets. The batting lineups are deeper, but we also have options in our bowling. At the halfway stage, the talk was to take the game to the opposition and you kind of break the game open when you pick up 4 wickets in the powerplay," he added.

Despite losing four wickets in the powerplay, Punjab were in the game till the 19^th over, courtesy of brilliant knocks from Prabhsimran Singh (46 off 30) and Jitesh Sharma (41 off 27). However, Harshal Patel dismissed Sharma on the second ball of the 19^th over and sealed a win for his side.

Mohammed Siraj was awarded Player of the Match for his four-wicket haul and he also claimed the Purple Cap for being the highest wicket-taker of the tournament so far with 12 wickets to his name.