IPL 2019 | A glimpse of hope still remaining for RCB, says Virat Kohli

The 12th edition of the Indian Premier League has not been a successful one for Royal Challengers Bangalore as the team faltered from the season opener despite having star players like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in their line-up. These consecutive losses positioned them in the seventh position on the points table. The RCB Skipper, after their win against KXIP on Wednesday, said that he was hurt after losing a dozen of matches in a row from the start, and this four wins out of five matches played would be a refresher for the team to move on without holding any pressure.

“The only focus was to play well as a team. Losing six in a row really hurt us. Literally, no one in the team has been part of such a streak. So we just refreshed, thought about just enjoying ourselves and the important thing now is not to take on any pressure," Kohli said, reported PTI. 

Since April 13, RCB have managed to win four out of five matches, but there is an outside hope for the team to enter the playoffs if they can win remaining three games and other results go on their way. 

"Yeah, we've won four of the five. Could have been five out of five. We were just looking to enjoy and tonight was a great example of having fun. We know how we play. The world knows how we play," the RCB skipper said.

AB de Villiers, who has maintained an average of 40.81 at a strike of 151.58 in 151 IPL matches played, was awarded Man of the Match on yesterday’s match for his exceptional batting performance of unbeaten 82 off 44 balls. He heaped praise on the RCB bowlers for defending the KXIP batsmen below the target. 

“I really just try to stay calm. It's not easy. Game is happening quickly. But you have your team-mates around you to share the load (death-overs batting). We know our home ground pretty well. It hasn't been a great hunting ground at the start but if we can keep going with this momentum, we'll do well,” he said on the post-match presentation.

"And you can see it, lots of smiles on the faces. I still thought the par score was 180. I actually felt it was 160 but it got better to bat in the second innings. So the boys bowled really well," said de Villiers.