IPL 2018: Virat Kohli blames batsmen for not showing composure after RCB go out

Virat Kohli says batsmens lack of application led to Royal Challengers Bangalores defeat against Rajasthan Royals — Virat Kohli says batsmen's lack of application led to Royal Challengers Bangalore's defeat against Rajasthan Royals

Jaipur, May 19: Virat Kohli said on Saturday (May 19) Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen did not show enough composure while chasing against Rajasthan Royals and the defeat has been hurting.

Royal Challengers went down by 30 runs in a must-win game against Royals here and Kohli said the decision making of other batsmen was not up to the scratch as RCB were booted out of this year's IPL.

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AB was batting beautifully, the decision-making of the others was poor. It shouldn't have been repeated by five-six guys in a row. Disappointed to not finish this off after we were cruising, just to see the way it unfolded after that hurts," said Kohli after the match.

Kohli said the RCB wanted to strengthen their middle-order but the effort he said did not fructify.

"It was a great position at one stage but the way we fumbled it wasn't ideal. We wanted to strengthen our middle order that hasn't been our strength for the last few years, something we need to look forward to over the next year and beyond.

"Scoring and stress in the middle order can't always be on a guy like AB. Here, others around him just didn't show enough composure," said Kohli.

6th #VIVOIPL 2018 Fifty for @ABdeVilliers17 . 25th for #RCB 🙌❤️

Get the feeling that his wicket holds absolute key for us.#RRvRCB #PlayBold pic.twitter.com/ItkzbA2nbU
— Royal Challengers (@RCBTweets) May 19, 2018

The RCB were depending too much on Kohli (530 runs) and AB de Villiers (480 runs) this season for runs after letting Chris Gayle go. They had retained Sarfaraz Khan but he did not get too many games and even in those games the middle order batsman could not make any impact.

However, Kohli was also quick to point out the positives from the season. "Quite a few positives: Umesh (Yadav) was outstanding, (Yuzvendra) Chahal was good, (Mohammad) Siraj took his opportunities and Moeen (Ali) grabbed his chances and gave us the balance," said Kohli.

20 wickets now in #VIVOIPL 2018 for @y_umesh 🙌❤️

What a fiery spell by a fast bowler in this sweltering heat 🔥🔥🔥#RRvRCB #PlayBold #RCB pic.twitter.com/TfAJ8KP12s
— Royal Challengers (@RCBTweets) May 19, 2018

The defeat against Rajasthan Royals meant that Kohli's side was knocked out of the IPL as they have only 12 points from 14 games. Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders, who are playing against Sunrisers Hyderabad later in the night, have 14 points while Mumbai Indians, who also have 12 points with a game in hand, are ahead in the net run rate.