Dubai: After a couple of heartbreaking losses, Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore bounced back to winning ways as they got the better of the defending champions on Sunday. RCB crushed MI by 54 runs to hold onto the third spot in the points table.
For RCB, Harshal Patel turned up when needed and did the job. The purple cap holder picked up a match-winning hat-trick to bundle out MI for MI. Harshal finished with figures of four for 17 in his 19 balls.
Kohli said he could have gone for Yuzvendra Chahal, but because Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya were in the crease – he did not go for that option. Kohli went for Dan Christian and Harshal – who did the job well.
“Chahal was bowling really well but I felt there wasn’t enough in the pitch to stop them at that stage. They definitely would’ve gone after Chahal [talking about Hardik and Pollard]. I went with DC – he bowled an amazing over, completely shut the game down and what Harshal did from the other end was unbelievable,” Kohli said during the post-match presentation.
An elated Harshal revealed why he went for slower balls.
I was thinking if the batters can’t pick my slower balls then the bowlers also will find it difficult to spot (referring to Chahar’s wicket that got him the hat-trick). I just bet on that. This is my sixth time being on a hat-trick and finally got one, so pretty happy.
MI with three successive defeats is now in a real spot of bother at the seventh spot in the eight-team table.
