Watch: Virat Kohli's Motivational Dressing Room Talk To RCB Teammates After Huge Defeat To KKR

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) resumed their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 campaign in the worst way possible, crashing to an embarrassing defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 31 on Monday, in Abu Dhabi. The Virat Kohli-led outfit lost by nine wickets with plenty of underwhelming individual performances. After the match, Kohli took it on himself to motivate his teammates for the upcoming matches in UAE. This is also the 32-year-old's last season as RCB captain as revealed by him in a statement just before the start of the UAE leg of the league. The franchise also posted a video blog for the match, which included dressing room talks before and after the game.

After the match, Kohli started off by asking his teammates to accept the defeat and to use it as motivation for the next few games.

"We are better off accepting it immediately and being at peace with it. Not meaning that we don't look forward to the next one, but it should give us more hunger to get on to the field again and play the cricket that we have played already in this tournament", said the RCB skipper.

"So, I think it's about accepting that this kind of a game will happen at some stage. There is no reason why we should react differently to losses", he said.

"We have to stay pretty balanced as a team if we have to go all the way", he further added.

Here is the video:

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Aiming to set a strong target, RCB faced a major batting collapse with Kohli scoring only five runs. South African veteran AB de Villiers was also dismissed for a golden duck.

Devdutt Padikkal top-scored for RCB with 22 off 20 balls. The Bengaluru franchise posted 92 in 19 overs.

Against a target of 93 runs, KKR were at their aggressive best, posting 94 for one in 10 overs.

KKR openers were in top form with Shubman Gill smashing 48 off 34 balls. Meanwhile, Venkatesh Iyer remained unbeaten after scoring 41 in 27 balls.

For their upcoming game, RCB face Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Match 35 on Friday, at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

Topics mentioned in this article

Royal Challengers Bangalore Kolkata Knight Riders Virat Kohli IPL 2021 Cricket