Virat Kohli has dismissed worries over the form of Chris Gayle, who has been in a bit of a slump since his hundred against England in the World T20 over a month ago.
Gayle was dismissed third ball in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s loss to Delhi Daredevils here on Sunday, his scores in his last five innings now reading 4, 5, 4, 1, and 0.
“We got 230 (vs. Sunrisers) and almost 200 (vs. Delhi), without he firing. When he fires I don’t know what is going to happen,” Kohli remarked.
“Chris takes a lot of pride in playing for RCB. He has been a stand-out player for us. People just expect a lot out of him every time in T20 cricket because he is so good at it.
“He has got 17 centuries in T20 cricket. I’m sure he will come good at some stage in this tournament, maybe in the most important stages and not in the first few games. I’m not too worried about his form.”
CostlyKohli felt the slow end to RCB’s innings — only 21 runs scored off the last 23 balls — contributed significantly to the defeat.
Kohli faced only one of the seven balls following Shane Watson’s dismissal.
“That could be the difference because that is the time of my innings when I accelerate very well,” he said.
“It could have been 15-20 runs [extra], you never know. We were targeting 200; if I’d faced 15 of the last 24 balls, we could’ve scored 215 as well.
It is very easy to get carried away with the team we have and not care about the little things.”
de Kock praises ZaheerMeanwhile, Man-of-the-match Quinton de Kock lauded Zaheer Khan’s captaincy and his handling of his bowlers for the impact they made in the death overs. “Zak’s fields are very interesting,” he said. “I don’t know where he gets them from, but they’re very interesting and seem to work. Our bowlers love being captained by him. He lets them bowl the way they want to.”
