IPL 2021 in UAE: KKR hold off RCB to deny Kohli once again and make it to Qualifier 2

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00:00I'm glad that he's finally hung up his boot as the captain of RCB and you might see different results for these men in red.

00:06But as long as Virat Kohli is doing the captainship of RCB, I don't see any trophy coming.

00:20Hi guys and welcome to Straight Back with Golf News and Mr Cricket UAE, Anas Sajjan.

00:25We're here once again to talk about the playoffs. Another real nail-biter. It looked like it was in

00:32the bag but once again, Virat Kohli's RCB go-home empty-handed. I'll go straight over to Anas and

00:41let him introduce everybody. Thank you Matt. Hello Shyam, hello Satish and hello to both the fans.

00:47I won't mince any words that I had not last time. I'm afraid it's been 2011, Virat Kohli has been

00:54captaining RCB and we are seeing year after year the same results. They either get knocked off before

01:00the playoffs or they get knocked off in the playoffs and I'm afraid the biggest thing in the

01:05armor is their captain Virat Kohli and I'm glad that he's finally hung up his boot as the captain of

01:10RCB and you might see different results for these men in red. But as long as Virat Kohli's

01:15captainship, doing the captainship of RCB, I don't see any trophy coming. Nonetheless, they had the

01:20match in their hands when they were going great guns. No match awareness and in the field, they

01:25were as sloppy as ever and I'm afraid a couple of umpiring decisions. I don't know what was wrong

01:30with the umpires. He was just keeping up his feeling. Two, three runs extra would have made

01:34the difference but it's a pathetic, pathetic performance by RCB. Okay and Shyam, I'll go

01:41straight to you there. Obviously, you were there at the game. What was your take on that? I mean,

01:47obviously, the umpires look very questionable. There's lots of dropped catches and RCB really

01:53missed a chance, I think. Yeah, I think Anis nailed it on the head. So, I mean, I don't

02:00want to elaborate on that. That's pretty much it. I think along with the scatches, RCB dropped the

02:06match actually because that was, if the scatches are taken, the pressure would have been firmly on

02:10them and we would have seen Calcutta collapse. So, that didn't happen. They have RCB bouncing

02:18out of the tournament yet again. And we'll come to Hussain. Obviously, he's a RCB fan.

02:26What's your take on the near miss and yet another year of hurt?

02:32It's really disappointing, frustrating rather to see RCB again and again doing, going through the

02:41same thing, getting to a good start and then somehow losing it in the end. But I think

02:46three spinners for KKR, I mean, great decision. Those middle overs really paid them off and what

02:53to say, Narayan's day maybe today. And of course, obviously, Abhijit, you've still got a smile on

03:00your face even now. You called, I think it was about the 14th or 15th over. You said,

03:06oh, it's going to be an early night guys. And then it comes right back to the last couple of balls.

03:14It got a bit early for you.

03:17Yeah, I mean, we love to finish it early. But I was a bit surprised that we sort of

03:25we sort of got a bit sloppy when, you know, but hats off to Narayan. So that was a breather for

03:34us and absolutely enjoyed his knock and kind of like eased off our tension. So yeah, so a great

03:44bit of bowling from our trio, Shakir, Narayan and VC. I mean, they're the top class spinners in

03:55the world right now. They'll be representing their countries. So you got to respect their

04:01bowling. I mean, RCB did their best, but they're absolutely top notch.

04:08I bet One Nation would love to have them all in their team.

04:11Satish, it looked like Nareen broke the back of RCB,

04:21but there was still some bright scares towards the end there.

04:26Sorry?

04:28Nareen broke the back?

04:31Yeah, there were many, many things that happened during the course of the match. One was the

04:37middle overs when the spinners tightened the screws. But 138 is no mean score in Sharjah.

04:44Probably in the last six games, if you look at this, it's probably one of the highest

04:49scores in Sharjah. So that was a good score. Where RCB erred was, number one, as Anees and

04:56Shyam said, you got to take those catches early on. And secondly, the one over which Dan Kirstein

05:02bowled, which I think he gave away something like 22 runs. 22 runs over 138. And you lost the

05:09match by two balls to spare. And time again, I don't understand why these players like Dan

05:17Kirstein and some of the other players, they keep coming and they keep getting chances, but they

05:21don't deliver on the big stage. So that is another part. And again, Kohli, I would blame him for his

05:28captaincy. He could have done it for sure. Better is, you've got no other bowler other than Dan

05:35Kirstein who could come and bowl other than Maxwell. So that was a wrong calculation on his

05:40part again. As a captain, you can't do that. You got to see whether the game is going to go to the

05:47last over. We need to plan it accordingly. And a guy who has already been hit 22 runs or 23 runs

05:54one over, you're going to give him the second over in the last over. And that's, again,

06:00wrong captaincy. So I would say. It's a very valid point. I was just going to ask Sean there.

06:12Coming in just as a batsman and taking away the captaincy,

06:14point number one, would that help Kohli? And number two, who takes over?

06:21Yeah, that's a difficult question to answer, because right now I don't see anybody in the

06:26side taking over. And one possible candidate which is being discussed in the media is

06:32KL Rahul. They might bring KL Rahul from Punjab to captain Royal Challengers. That is,

06:41that could be a possibility simply because KL Rahul is a Karnataka boy and

06:47RCB being a Bangalore franchise, that makes sense. But will he come from Punjab? We don't know

06:52because he's captain for two years. And whether his loyalties lies there with that team or

06:58whether he would come back to his hometown is a point to ponder. But I would think more than

07:06anything else, RCB would need a proper surgery. They need to look at the team long and hard

07:12and make some tough decisions. If they have to harbour any

07:16ambitions of winning, they need to be much more serious than this.

07:20Okay. And Hussain, quickly, will Kohli thrive without the captaincy or do we need to go back

07:29to the basics for RCB? Sorry?

07:34Will Kohli thrive without the captaincy or will they need to really go back to basics and start

07:40looking ahead to life without him? I think he should really go back to the basics

07:45and start looking for a good captain.

07:50Okay. Short and sweet. Next up, you've got to play DC and then Chennai. Where do we go from here?

08:01I'm backing them all the way, as I've always done it. And you see a new KKR altogether. I mean,

08:07this was a team was at the bottom of the pile. And look at them now. They're the top three

08:14team now. I mean, and what else? That means you finished third.

08:20No, they're the top three. So I can see 2012 repeating itself, you know, just the

08:28last two digits changing around. So 2021 is ours.

08:33Nice. And Satish, I know that you're a Chennai boy yourself. Who do you fancy meeting in the

08:44final of these guys now that you know who you're going to be up against?

08:48From what I've seen in the last two days, I would fancy Delhi coming in, though Kolkata has got an

08:54all-round team. The reason being the top three batsmen, if they don't score, Kolkata is in

09:01trouble. So that's one area of real weakness. And if they could do this and they could struggle

09:07against Bangalore, which has got a weak bowling attack, Delhi has got a far better bowling attack

09:13than Bangalore. So and you have the variety, you have various options, multiple bowlers.

09:20So that would be a big point to look for. And I would say they need to be wary of that factor

09:28because either Gill or Venkatesh Iyer or Tripathi, one of these guys don't go on to score

09:34a big score. They are struggling. Even now, like another 10 more runs, maybe they would have

09:39struggled. But for that quick cameo from Narayan, it would have been even difficult. So

09:47and it could be a bigger ground. No, I think they're playing Sharjah itself. So I think

09:51ground doesn't matter. But Delhi has got a far better attack than

09:57Bangalore. So they need to be wary of that factor.

10:01So you think it's going to be a qualifier one rematch then?

10:05Yeah, possible. I would say yes.

10:08OK. All right, guys. Thank you, everybody, for joining us again. I know it's late, but

10:14we're always here for you guys every night and we'll be right here for you all the way through

10:20to the final. And you can always log on to gulfnews.com for all the previews, reviews,

10:28analyses and all the other bits in between. And thanks very much again for watching us here on

10:34Straight Badge.

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