26 April,2024 07:05 AM IST | Hyderabad | IANS
RCB opener Virat Kohli during his 51 against SRH on Thursday. Pic/AFP
Former Australia opener Aaron Finch defended Virat Kohli's innings after the star Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter scored a 43-ball 51 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), saying sometimes a set batter's role is to take the game deeper, which somewhere limits the intent to hit boundaries.
Kohli was quick in the Powerplay, scoring 23 off just 11 deliveries, but he laboured to score his next 28 runs off 32 balls due to some tight overs from T Natarajan and Shahbaz Ahmed.
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However, Rajat Patidar did not let RCB's scoring rate drop. He came into the game with a strike-rate of 125 against pacers and 197 against spinners this season, and banked on his strength to score a 20-ball 50 - the joint second-fastest fifty in RCB's history, that powered Faf du Plessis's side to 206 in 20 overs, and eventually winning the game by 35 runs.
The former Australian skipper urged people not to deem Kohli's innings slow as he was trying to build a partnership with Patidar after losing two wickets. "I think it is a combination of a few things here. Yes, he [Kohli] got off to an absolute flyer. But after the Powerplay, he dropped to 19 from 25. But one thing you have to keep in mind is that Patidar was going crazy at the other end. Sometimes your job as a set batter is to take the game a little bit deeper and get Patidar on strike as much as possible. That's where the intent to hit boundaries goes out," said Finch.
118.60
Virat Kolhi's strike-rate against SRH on Thursday
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