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Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) hosted the KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in match 15 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 edition on Monday evening (April 10). In a high-scoring thriller, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Smashing three maximums and four boundaries, Kohli was at his ravishing best in front of the home crowd. 34 of his 42 runs in the powerplay of 25 deliveries came from boundaries as RCB amassed 56 runs at the end of the powerplay. In fact, it was his highest score in the powerplay of an IPL game in his career.
But what concerned Doull, who was on-air during the first innings of the Chinnaswamy game, was Kohli's strike rate post powerplay. He pointed out that while Kohli went all guns blazing in the powerplay, he scored the next eight runs to reach his fifty in 10 balls (Kohli had taken seven balls). “Virat Kohli started off like a train. He was hammering shots. But from 42 to 40 the took 10 balls. He's concerned about his personal milestone. I don’t think there’s room for that in this game anymore. You’ve just got to keep going especially with wickets in hand at that stage. You’ve got to keep going,” he said.
Earlier last month, during the 2023 Pakistan Super League tournament, Doull had launched a similar attack on Babar, lashing out at him for prioritising his century after the Quetta Gladiators skipper had taken 14 deliveries to complete to reach the milestone from 83 off 46.“Rather than putting the team first... the last little while, that's all that been happening. Rather than looking for boundaries, still so much firepower to come. Hundreds are brilliant, stats are great, but it has to be team first,” Doull had said during his commentary stint.
