Kohli says points table can’t define a team

Royal Challengers Bangalore seem to have found their mojo and with the win against Punjab Kings they have moved to fifth position in the points table.

However, Virat Kohli, who captained RCB in Thursday’s IPL game at Mohali, says that the points table can’t really define a team.

“The table can’t define your team. It’s towards game 13 or 14 we can try and focus on what we need to do,” Kohli said after the match.

The star Indian batter yet again scored a fifty and put up a century partnership with Faf du Plessis, third for an RCB opening pair.

Also read: ‘I back myself to hit good balls off good bowlers’

“Faf batted really well on that pitch and his innings ensured we had that 20-30 extra at the end. The pitch was very rough underneath,and hardly any sixes were hit off the back foot against the spinners. The strategy was to bat deep to have a crack at 190,” he said.

Kohli said on that kind of surface the target of 175 looked defendable. “Told them (the bowlers) that the target was more than enough. We cannot afford to take the game deep, especially when they lost 6-7 wickets. The batting lineups are deeper, but we also have had options in our bowling,” said Kohli.

If it were Kohli and du Plessis with the bat, Mohammed Siraj fired for RCB with the ball by returning figures of 4 for 21.

“The lockdown was really important for me, because I used to get hit for boundaries very often before that. I worked on my plans, my fitness and my bowling and it’s all paying dividends now,” Siraj said.