Virat Kohli: We are at our best when we have to fight back against the odds

Despite Kohli scored a half-century on his RCB return, his team could only manage to score 142 runs in 20 overs and lost to Mumbai by four wickets. The defeat left the Bangalore side languishing in 6th on the table with just a solitary win from four games. But Kohli believes that the team can bounce back after a lacklustre beginning. 

“Obviously when you lose that kind of a game it hurts. It’s a game of small margins and we could have had a few plays go our way right in the end as well. Credit to the guys, the way we fought in the first six was tremendous,” said Kohli. “Samuel Badree was outstanding, picking up four wickets and ended up on the losing side. Credit to Mumbai Indians, they strung an important partnership.

RCB bowlers started the game pretty well and just within the first three overs of Mumbai’s innings, they had picked up four wickets – three of them were taken by Samuel Badree in the third over. But after that, the sixth-wicket partnership between Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya took the game out of RCB’s clutches.

“The wicket played differently during the day and during the second half. But nothing to be taken away from Mumbai, they deserved to win, they showed character, kept fighting till the end and that shows the depth in their batting,” said Kohli. “They still had Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) to come in, so you can see how much depth they have. They are a very explosive side and we’re wary of that. So I reckon if we had 20 more, we could have had a result our way but in hindsight, from 8 for 4, you expect to win games, but hats off to Mumbai.