With the Royal Challengers Bangalore all but out of contention for a place in the IPL play-offs, a disappointed skipper Virat Kohli found his team's 61-run loss against Rising Pune Supergiant on Saturday inexplicable.
When asked whether RCB lost the game or RPS won it, Kohli said:
I think it’s for everyone to see we lost that game. It’s hard for a captain to stand here and speak after a performance like this. We lost the game rather than them winning it. But got to learn and move on from these kind of experiences.
RCB now left with four games in the league stage, the Indian skipper ruled out any outside chance of making it to IPL 10’s final four.
We are pretty much not in the race for the play-offs. All we can do is enjoy the four remaining games.Virat Kohli
Having lost seven out of 10 matches, including getting bundled out twice and nine wickets down in back-to-back games, Kohli said there could be a number of reasons behind RCB's dismal performance.
Could be a few reasons, expectations, people looking at us as a good batting side that made the play-offs last year. Can’t really pinpoint something – could be hesitation to get out, to get runs.
Meanwhile, Rising Pune Supergiant captain Steve Smith praised man-of-the-match Lockie Ferguson for his impressive figures of 2/7 from four overs.
"Lockie Ferguson bowled beautifully. It's a magnificent effort from Lockie, hit good lengths and bowled good bouncers as well. He is an exciting player for the future," said Smith.
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