IPL 2020: Virat Kohli Reveals Where RCB Need Improvement After Close Win Over Mumbai

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli said his side needs to improve its catching after escaping a loss against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.

The match between RCB and MI, held on Monday, was played in Dubai. After being asked to bat in the first innings, half-centuries from opening batsmen, Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal, powered RCB to a great start. The two put up 81 runs for the opening stand before Finch was dismissed in the ninth over. The Aussie captain got out for a 35-ball 52, including six and seven fours. Later in the innings, Shivam Dube scored a quick-fire 27 from 10 balls and AB de Villiers registered his IPL career’s 35th fifty as RCB posted 201 for 3 in 20 overs.

Chasing RCB’s target of 204, MI struggled initially. MI captain Rohit Sharma got out in the second over before one-down batsman Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed for a two-ball duck the following over. However, Ishan Kishan stuck around at one end and MI sailed through on his shoulders. West Indian big-hitter Kieron Pollard’s cameo down the order further added to RCB’s woes and poor fielding from Kohli’s side did not help their cause either.

Even though Kishan got out on the fifth ball of the final over of the second innings, Pollard smashed a four on the final ball to end the game in a tie, forcing a Super Over. It was the second Super Over of IPL 2020. While RCB sealed the match in the Super Over, captain Kohli is aware of the areas in which his team desperately needs to improve.

Speaking at the post-match presentation, Kohli admitted that had his boys not dropped catches, the match would not have gone so close. Pollard, who took the match so close for MI, received three lives, while Kishan’s catch was dropped once.

"We tried to execute the things that we wanted to - again fielding is something that we have to keep working on, because those [dropped] catches are going to be costly. If we'd taken our catches again tonight, probably it wouldn't have been so close, so look, we've got a close victory, and, as I said, these little things on the field we are not capitalizing on right now - it's something we really need to focus on," added Kohli, who himself has not been at his best as a fielder.

During RCB’s match against Kings XI Punjab, earlier this season, Kohli dropped KL Rahul’s catch twice and that allowed the KXIP skipper to remain unbeaten on 132 from 69 balls. In the end, RCB were bowled out for just 109 runs with three overs to spare.