Royal Challengers Bengaluru's talismanic batter Virat Kohli reacted funnily to the chants by the crowd who wanted him to bowl during the IPL 2024 clash against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday, April 11.
During the second innings of the clash, RCB's bowlers were took the cleaners by MI's batters, especially Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, and Rohit Sharma, as the hosts were chasing down the 197-run target. Royal Challengers Bengaluru's pace-bowling attack of Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Akash Deep and Vijaykumar Vyshak faced a tough time to deal with onslaughts from MI batters.
Since the hosts' batters were making a mockery of the RCB bowling attack, a section of the crowd hilariously demanded skipper Faf du Plessis to give a ball to Virat Kohli with the chants 'Kohli ko bowling do'.
Virat Kohli, who was running towards the boundary line, cheekily reacted to the crowd's chants by gesturing that he didn't want to ball. The video of the same went viral on social media.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli had an off day with the bat as he scored just 3 off 9 balls. Despite Kohli's dismissal, Royal Challengers Bengaluru went on to post 196/8 in 20 overs, thanks to half-centuries from Faf du Plessis (61) and Dinesh Karthik (52*). Karthik once donned the role of a finisher to help the team post a formidable total.
However, RCB couldn't defend the total as Mumbai Indians chased down the target with 4.3 overs to spare. Ishan Kishan (69) and Suryakumar Yadav (52) shone with half-centuries while Rohit Sharma played a quickfire 39 off 24 balls. Skipper Hardik Pandya (21*) and Tilak Verma (16*) chipped in to help MI achieve the target.
Virat Kohli retains Orange Cap despite poor returns
Virat Kohli continues to remain the leading run-scorer of the ongoing IPL 2024 despite his poor returns against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium.
Kohli has amassed 319 runs, including a century and two fifties, at an average of 79.75 and a strike rate of 141.78 in six matches so far. Before the clash against Mumbai Indians, the 35-year-old had an astounding strike rate of 105.33. Now, it slumped to below 80, marking a drop of over 25 runs in batting average.
The talismanic batter's best performance came against Rajasthan Royals as he registered his maiden fifty of IPL 2024 and played a brilliant unbeaten 113-run knock to help RCB post 183/3 on the board. However, his effort went in vain as Royals chased down 184-run target with four balls to spare.
Kohli will look to come up with goods when Royal Challengers Bengaluru take on SunRisers Hyderabad at MA Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 15, Monday.
