"It's not reckless batting" - Shaun Tait on Virat Kohli's dismissal in CSK vs RCB IPL 2023 game
Former Australian pacer Shaun Tait reckons that Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opener Virat Kohli made up his mind to up the ante right from the start in the team's IPL 2023 clash against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday, April 17.
While the approach led to Kohli's early dismissal, Tait believes that the ace batter had no other option, given that Bangalore were chasing an imposing 227-run target. The former Indian skipper endured a rare failure this season after getting out for just six runs.
Kohli perished while trying to play an attacking shot off left-arm pacer Akash Singh. However, he could only manage to get an inside edge and the ball crashed onto his stumps after ricocheting off his shoe.
Speaking about the in-form batter's early dismissal, Tait told ESPNcricifo:
"I think Virat Kohli came out very hard. You're probably not going to sit there and critique that when you're chasing that sort of score. Virat decided that the was just going to go every ball. It's not reckless batting and it's just a decision he made to try and assert himself early on."
During the same discussion, Wasim Jaffer pointed out how Kohli has looked to score runs quickly in the powerplay. He highlighted that the 34-year-old tends to slow down in the latter stages once the spinners come into the attack.
The former batter opined that Kohli's opening partner Faf du Plessis has shown that he can switch gears based on the situation of the match, elaborating:
"Virat Kohli, even while batting first, has come out really hard. He looks like he has come out with a lot of energy and wants to impose himself on the bowlers, whereas Faf can do both roles. We saw against Mumbai how Faf took it on early.
"He was more aggressive in that chase, but he can play the other role as well. Kohli, I feel really goes hard in the powerplay and then we have seen that his strike rate comes down when the spinners are on. It's a considerable change in his batting."
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Du Plessis slammed an impressive half-century against CSK, mustering 62 runs off 33 balls. However, his efforts were in vain as RCB suffered an eight-run loss.
"Have been heavily reliant on three or four players" - Shaun Tait on RCB's batting lineup
Shaun Tait further stated that RCB have always been heavily reliant on their top-order batters for many years now. He noted that in previous seasons, the likes of Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, and Virat Kohli had to do most of the scoring.
He suggested that Glenn Maxwell's dismissal against CSK swung the pendulum in favor of MS Dhoni and Co. Tait added:
"That's been RCB's thing for 10 or 15 years. It's harsh, but [they] have been heavily reliant on three or four players, even back when it was Chris Gayle, Ab de Villiers and Virat Kohli. It was a perfect game for Glenn Maxwell to shine, which he did, but that was it. That was an important wicket and a massive turning point"
Maxwell was the top performer with the bat for RCB and threatened to take the game away from CSK, scoring 76 runs off just 36 balls.