We gave 120 percent effort on the field and that's what counts: Virat Kohli

In the 41st IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians, MI beat RCB by 6 wickets. With this loss, RCB now needs to win all the remaining group stage matches to qualify for the playoffs. In the post-match chat, Virat Kohli said: “We are literally playing knockouts now. We played really hard. We were not in the game till the 15th over. Sachin and Rahul gave us hope but too much to ask from bowlers here at Chinnaswamy. Credit to Mumbai – they bowled well, batted well. As long as my team is working hard, it’s fine. We lost early wickets. I got caught inside the ring, something that never happens. Mumbai’s spinners bowled very well, didn’t give us any room and our opposition read the pitch better. Cricket cannot guarantee performances.”

Despite having lost the match, the home skipper Virat Kohli wasn’t really disappointed with the effort of his boys and said that he was glad that they gave 120 percent effort on the field. “We gave our 120 percent but couldn’t win. It’s not a game of ifs and buts. I love this situation (needing to win all the games). You have to go out there and make things happen. We have to win all the games and it’s an exciting position to be in. Mumbai played that way last year and won it. We have the right kind of momentum to do that.” Kohli said.

On the other side, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma was happy with his team’s bowling performance. Rohit praised their efforts and said, “Shaking off the previous defeat was important. This win sets us up nicely on the table. We wanted to focus on our processes and we did our batting, bowling and fielding well. There was a hiccup but Buttler and Pollard finished well. Bangalore is always a high-scoring ground. We discuss a lot in our meeting and we wanted to execute all that. We did that today. We needed wickets to keep the runs down. Getting Kohli early was good. 150 odd was easy to chase here and we kept our nerve, and came out and expressed ourselves. I thought the surface was dry and slow, which is why we rotated our bowlers to not let them get used to it. The idea behind containing RCB was to not allow them to get used to one bowler. We have 3 games left and we will take it as it comes. The focus now is on the game against Punjab at Vizag. RCB are probably one of the best teams in IPL and it brings the best out of you (on why they have a superior record over RCB at Chinnaswamy). Last game was a disaster and we wanted to prove a point.”

Krunal Pandya was adjudged the Man of the Match for his superb spell of 4-0-15-1. “Really happy the way I bowled. I was varying the pace and the wicket was on the slower side, so let the batsman guess as to what I was bowling. Bangalore is a heavy scoring ground but after bowling a few balls, I got the idea that varying pace here is key. When I was not playing IPL, my dream team was Mumbai. It’s an honour to be a part and it feels good to contribute in whatever way I could.” Pandya said.

What were the stats and records created in the game? – IPL 9, Match 41: RCB v MI – Statistical Highlights