Video of KL Rahul’s 132 in 69 balls : RCB vs PBKS : IPL

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Punjab Kings, 24 September, 07:30 PM IST

Match Result : Punjab Kings won by 97 runs

Player of the Match : KL Rahul

Match Report : PBKS were good for a 180 total, but Rahul’s self-confidence of knowing which bowler to target could be seen. Rahul stole runs at the death to literally bat RCB out of the competition.

KL Rahul | Player of the Match | PBKS captain: Not really (hitting it this well). I have actually been not so confident. I had a chat with Maxi yesterday, he said how are you feeling, I said that I am not feeling completely in control of my batting, he said you must be joking, you are hitting really well.

Quite honestly I was nervous but I knew if I spend time in the middle, hit a few balls from the middle of bat, it will all settle down. I try to do (the same routines as I did when I was a player) but as a captain you have shortened time and you are running around and doing a lot of things. I still try to maintain the same routine. Once I am in the middle and during the toss is the only time I feel like a captain.

Otherwise I try to balance being a player and the captain. It’s as complete a team performance as it can get. We had few different plans going into this game. We knew RCB have a power packed batting line up and we had to get 2-3 wickets up front and that also meant putting runs on the board, we know what these guys can do if they get set. 

Virat Kohli | RCB captain: “Yeah it didn’t (go well). I think we were good in the middle phase with the ball, they got off to a decent start and we pulled things back nicely. I have to stand in front and take the brunt of it, not the best day in the office, couple of important chances of KL when he was set and that cost us 35-40 runs at a later stage.

Maybe if we restricted them to 180 we wouldn’t have been under pressure from ball one of the chase. We know exactly where we went wrong and I have to put my hand up and say a couple of important chances went down. There are days when these kind of things happen on the cricket field, they happen and we have to accept them.

We have had a good game, we have had a bad game and now it is time to move on. Learn from the mistakes we make. We did pretty well closing in on the second time out. Those are the moments, we pulled things back nicely so we understand how to do that as a team.”

Cricket Expert Comments

“The intensity of the players define the game. We have seen CSK, MI players have that intensity and that is why they are winning the games or losing by very close margin.

RCB players over the years never got that rhythm or intensity or willing to win kind of attitude. They are happy or very happy if they lose by close margin and they go over the sky if they win.”