Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], March 23 (ANI): India and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batting icon Virat Kohli reflected on the team’s maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) win last season, saying that he felt a “sense of calm confidence” after reaching the finals, and waiting for the match to end after sealing the title was the “toughest part” of the night for him.
The man in the number 18 shirt will finally be walking into an IPL season without the sense of heaviness in his chest and a desperation in his bat swing to get that trophy as ‘King Kohli’ completed his white-ball trophy cabinet by capturing the elusive prize last year, which also marked his 18th season with the franchise. During the final few moments of the game, Virat was captured teary-eyed by TV cameras as years of emotional weight of being trophyless despite his huge amount of runs was finally being lifted ball-by-ball during the final over of the innings.
Speaking in a video posted by RCB, Virat said, “I have been here since day one, and so has Mane (Team’s masseur Ramesh Mane) Kaka. We are probably the oldest members of the RCB group, and to be very honest, when we reached the finals (against Punjab Kings), I felt a sense of calm confidence.”
Virat also said that despite his confidence, he knew it was not going to be a “cakewalk”.
“It is a final, and there is another team that has played really, really well to get there and obviously beaten a lot of good sides, so they are also very confident of what they want to do,” he added.
Virat said that his franchise’s near misses in the past, such as narrow losses to Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2009 and 2016 finals, gave the franchise an “extra motivation to hold their nerve”.
“Because the league has become so much more competitive, we must have played really good cricket to get to the finals. It is not a fluke, it is not by chance. We have beaten some really good teams, and we are an amazing side who have earned the right to be here on this day. All in all, it was an amazing night for all of us,” he said.
“It was quite surreal for me honestly, quite unbelievable when it was all unfolding in the end. So many things flash in front of your eyes. The whole journey for 18 years, all the ups and downs, all the good moments, bad moments, it’s like the accumulation of all of that is unfolding in front of you, and that is going to happen in the next 10 minutes. It is a very difficult thing to explain, it is a thing to experience.” “And that experience I will never ever forget. And especially the last over, where you know the game is sealed, hoping that Josh (Hazlewood) does not bowl a no-ball, which he never does. So there was a quiet confidence but still as I said you are hoping for the perfect result. So knowing that the game is beyond them and then to wait for those last three balls was probably the toughest part of the night,” he concluded.
Last season, Virat scored 657 runs in 15 innings at an average of 54.75 and a strike rate of 144.71, with eight fifties to his name, finishing as the team’s leading run-getter and third-highest run-getter overall. (ANI)
