"All About Intent": Daniel Vettori On Virat Kohli's 30-Run Knock vs CSK

Royal Challengers Bangalore batter Virat Kohli showed glimpses of returning to form against Gujarat Titans as he played a 58-run knock but his innings against Chennai Super Kings has left a lot to be desired. The right-handed batter scored 30 runs off 33 balls and he found it tough to register big strikes. Former New Zealand batter Daniel Vettori said that at no stage did Kohli look like going for anything but a single against CSK.

Speaking on ESPNcricinfo's T20 Time Out, Vettori also praised Moeen Ali who had managed to get the better of Virat on Wednesday at MCA Stadium in Pune.

"I can think of the likes of a R Ashwin or a Harbhajan Singh bowling really quickly to him in the powerplay and him just looking for singles, and potentially not dominating them. But this is different. This is Moeen Ali trying to spin the ball, wide of off stump and I feel like I can see that dismissal a few times in Test matches," said Vettori.

"And that is a huge amount of credit to Moeen Ali and his style of bowling - the fact that he was able to hit those areas with a little bit of drift, then that quick spin. So, this type of bowling seems to have troubled him a little bit as of now. It is a great ball. It's a fantastic piece of bowling and the surface allowed it to happen and the fact that Kohli was looking only for singles allowed it to happen as well," he further stated.

Vettori also said that Kohli is good enough to charge down the wicket against Moeen and hence in the end, it all boils down to intent.

"We've got to say that it was a very good spell of bowling from Moeen Ali. I mean when an off spinner can put that much pressure on a right-handed batsman trying to get singles, trying not even look to be aggressive towards him, showed that the pace that Moeen Ali was bowling. And it [pitch] had quick spin, I think that's the thing that might separate this surface, that it did spin quickly," said Vettori.

"But it just feels like it comes down to intent: at no stage did Kohli look like he was going for anything but a single. So, you plant foot down the crease, and you wait for the ball to come. If the ball is in the right spot, you can't manipulate a single. And Kohli at his best takes on off spin because he's aggressive, he hits them straight, and then he hits his hard ones. So, it is all about intent. And maybe the loss of the wicket, the run-out of Maxwell just put him back in his cage, and he thought 'I need to bat for an extended period of time'. But he is good enough to use his feet against Moeen Ali," he added.

Talking about the game between RCB and CSK, the latter were not able to chase down 174 and, in the end, they stumbled to a 13-run loss. Harshal Patel was adjudged as Man Of The Match after he returned with figures of 3-35.

Earlier, Mahipal Lomror and Dinesh Karthik played knocks of 42 and 26 to help RCB post 173/8 in 20 overs. With this win, RCB moved to the fourth spot in the points table while CSK are at the ninth position.

Topics mentioned in this article

Royal Challengers Bangalore Chennai Super Kings Virat Kohli Daniel Vettori IPL 2022 Cricket