Virat Kohli walked out in Raipur having bagged back-to-back ducks – a rarity in his IPL career – yet left the ground unbeaten on 101 and with Royal Challengers Bengaluru sitting pretty at the top of the table. A 193-run target never looked distant once he settled, and even his partner Devdutt Padikkal admitted that for long stretches he simply became a fan with a bat in hand.
“It was incredible to watch,” Padikkal said once the nine-wicket win was sealed. “I think I had the best seat in the house. Some of the shots he played were simply remarkable.”
The pair added 92 in 59 balls for the second wicket, breaking the back of the chase and banishing memories of recent early collapses. Padikkal’s own 39 from 27 was useful, but the match belonged to Kohli, who attacked early, rotated briskly in the middle overs and finished things off with typical efficiency.
“Obviously, coming into this game after two ducks is never easy, and he showed why he is who he is,” Padikkal added. “To not have that on his mind and to just go out there and bat the way he does was something incredible. Really happy to see him get those runs.”
No pre-planned ‘anchor’
Padikkal insisted there was no rigid decision for one of them to bat through. “I don’t think we really went into the specifics of anchoring,” he explained. “It was more about making sure we took the game to a certain stage where we felt the rest of our batting line-up would be in a comfortable position. Over the last couple of games, we’ve been in situations where we lost a couple of wickets early, and never stitched partnerships together. I think it was important today that once I went in, both of us spoke about elongating that partnership for as long as possible and then taking it from there.”
That plan worked because conditions were kinder than in their last outing, when an uneven surface forced a scrambling last-ball win over Mumbai. “It was a pretty good wicket, I thought,” Padikkal noted. “There was a little bit for the pacers initially with the new ball, but as soon as that swing died down, it was a pretty good wicket to bat on. I don’t think we really discussed a target, but these days anything under 200 feels chaseable. That’s how the game has evolved.”
Kohli’s mindset
Padikkal was asked what two straight ducks had done to Kohli’s mood. His answer was straightforward. “Honestly, it [the two ducks] doesn’t really change anything,” he said. “You’ve played so much cricket in your career. Everyone who is out here comes to perform. No one is going to score in every single game. That’s part of the game, and he understands that better than anybody else.”
From the outside the shift looked immediate. Kohli drilled his first boundary inside the opening over, and by the time Sunil Narine came on, he was already manipulating the field rather than merely surviving it. When lock-in arrived – the familiar follow-through, the half-step down the track, the threaded drive between extra cover and mid-off – the result felt inevitable.
Longer game, shorter table
The win nudged RCB ahead of Rajasthan Royals on net run rate, although both sides remain level on 16 points. The back half of the season offers little room for complacency; one mis-step can change the ladder overnight. But confidence, that most fickle of companions, has returned to the RCB dressing-room.
As Padikkal put it, “It was more about being there, understanding the situation and doing it together.” On nights when Kohli bats through, that formula tends to look deceptively simple.
