Virat Kohli told me not to hold back: Chahal

Virat Kohli celebrates RCB’s win. (Photo: Shashidhar B.)

A week ago this would have been a far-fetched dream. But three matches down the line Royal Challengers Bangalore have roared back into the competition jumping to the second spot on the table.

Despite rain playing havoc on Wednesday evening at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, both the players and the fans walked away a happy lot.

The Challengers notched up a third back-to-back convincing victory, defeating Kings XI Punjab by 82-runs via the Duckworth Lewis method in what was a truncated 15-overs-a-side contest.

Though the home team won by D/L method, one over of the already curtailed match was left before the skies opened up again to cut short the match.

With skipper Kohli’s form, who notched up his fastest T20 hundred — 113 off 50, the Challengers have finally stamped their authority in the ongoing season. All seems to be going well in the Chall-engers’ camp as their bowling unit also put up an impressive performance with veggie Yuzvendra Chahal pocketing a four-wicket haul.

“Today since we had a huge total I could go for the wickets and everything fell into place. He (Kohli) told me to play the way I do, to play freely and not hold back, not be afraid of the sixes and that helped,” said Chahal.

“In the beginning of the tournament our bowling was facing problems. Now I think we have more or less overcome those issues. We have overcome the weak points that we had in our bowling department and having (Chris) Jordan and Watson helps us in the death overs,” added the leg-spinner.

The RCB top order has become a bowler’s nightmare and Chahal is glad he is not at the receiving end of these batsmen. “They are in my team! Virat (Kohli), Watson (Shane), Chris (Gayle), AB, basically the top order, the best batsmen of T20 are in my team. It’s a relief. I consider myself lucky that I am in their team.”

Speaking about his skipper who is in phenomenal form, Chahal said, “He takes his training very seriously. He spends long hours in the gym and also at the nets. He practices at the centre wicket as well to practice hitting sixes. After scoring four hundreds he is still hungry for more and works very hard.”

Apart from breaking several barriers the skipper’s presence on the field helps the Challengers as well. “He is always pumped up on the field and looking at his energy we never feel that the game is over, It helps us youngsters a lot,” signed off Chahal.