‘Failed to hold composure in crunch situations’

Royal Challengers Bangalore Virat Kohli said his team has paid for lacking composure in crunch situations in some of the crucial games. “Well, I can say that we did 50 per cent of the things correctly today also. No doubt, the bowlers did a good job to come back into the contest after the fine opening partnership between Shikhar and Warner,” the RCB captain remarked.

“We had to win this game. Now, we have to wait and watch. Ideally, we would have loved to be in a situation to control things in the next two games. Not a good situation to be in. Similar to the position last year around this stage of the IPL,” a thoughtful Kohli pointed out.

“We wish we had some control in critical phases of at least three close games which we lost. I don’t think we were thrashed in the games we lost. Just failed to hold composure in important situations,” Kohli said.

“But, I must say that SRH batted really fluently on a pitch which we thought would become slower in the second-half. That did not happen. Definitely, in hindsight we can say that were 15 to 20 runs in arrears especially after me and de Villiers got out in quick succession after the fine partnership,” Kohli explained.

Sammy praises Warner

Darren Sammy was happy with the team’s performance. “It is always good to win a game and stay in the race. We keep our eyes closely now on the CSK-KKR game,” he said with a big smile.

“Warner is an opener. So, it was not surprising to send him to partner Shikhar especially after Finchy (Aaron Finch) had not batted as well as he could have done and moreover Warner has been our best batsman,” Sammy said.

Sammy, who took charge in the last game, said that whether he is the captain of SRH or West Indies, his commitment could never be questioned. “My whole concept is to get the best out of the team. Always prefer to have time to reflect after the game,” he added.

Questioned whether the improved performance for SRH today came a bit too late at this stage of IPL, Sammy said cricket was a funny game. “Anything can be possible once you start winning. We go to Ranchi for the big game against CSK. We hope to stay focussed and win the remaining two games to stay in the race,” he pointed out.