I just thought I should take a little more chances – Kohli on the slog sweep

In his first nine IPL 2024 games, Virat Kohli has a strike rate of 123.58 against them. However, in his last three innings, the veteran batsman has scored 109 off 65 deliveries against spin. It raised his SR to 167.7. His ability to use the slog-sweep and make the shot with conviction are two of the reasons he’s been able to do that.

Kohli scored 23 runs off of 13 deliveries from the spinners during his knock against Punjab Kings. It came at a strike rate of nearly 177. He did brilliantly against the pacers as usual. He got his final 69 runs at a strike rate of above 200 off just 34 deliveries.

I opened the slog-sweep and gave it to the spinners. I simply placed myself in that scenario in my head. Moreover, I didn’t even practice it. I’ve hit it a lot in the past, so I know I can hit it. Speaking to the media, Kohli said I just felt like I need to take a bit more risk. That shot was something he used to hit frequently in the past. It’s allowing him to hit off the backfoot as well. “Now I’m looking to expose that side (legside) of the field against the spin, which for me has been a massive factor in this IPL,” Kohli said.

I believe it requires a little more will and the removal of the supporting notion, “What if you get out?” I believe I have been able to avoid thinking about that during this IPL. And it has certainly aided me in the middle overs to maintain both the team’s scoring pace and my strike rate,” said Kohli.

The fact that the Kings missed multiple catches did not aid them in any way. Both Rajat Patidar’s 23-ball fifty-five and Kohli took advantage of them. After Kohli and Patidar put on 76 runs off of 32 deliveries for the third wicket stand, Green and Kohli combined to add 92 runs off of 46 deliveries for the fourth wicket. It enabled RCB to record a huge 241/7 which was too much for PBKS to handle.

The advantage of having Virat on your squad is that. He can’t be given many opportunities by the opposing teams since he will always hurt you. Especially if you drop him three or four times, especially early in the game when he’s trying to be very aggressive. He appeared to have little to lose after dropping a few catches. At the press conference held after the game, Green stated, “So he played the vintage Virat. The way we all know, and it was beautiful watching from the other end.

PBKS assistant coach Brad Haddin also indicated that his team’s inability was caused by the dropped catches. You have to see the game where we lost their two players. Kohli scored 92 and Patidar scored 55, both on a duck. And that’s just where the game could be won or lost. Both teams’ bowling and hitting didn’t contribute much. We lost the game today, I believe, because of the receptions we made.

With their 60-run victory over the Kings Royal Challengers Bengaluru secured their fourth straight win maintaining their hopes of making the playoffs. To advance to the competition’s final four though they still need to win their next two games and pray that a few more outcomes go their way.

We simply weren’t good enough in the first part of the competition. That is why we find ourselves in a similar situation where a lot of things still need to go our way even if we win the next two games. It is not a good situation to be in. Particularly after we had those consecutive losses after winning the season’s second game. Even though we were outmatched in most of the games, we did have a few tight ones. We recently had a candid conversation about how inadequate that was in the changing room. We need to step up our game. Additionally, We should be a little more daring with the bat and the ball at this level, according to Kohli.

And I believe the game went down to the wire in Kolkata when we came out and bowled in the powerplay in that manner, relentlessly pursuing wickets. And that helped us to believe a little bit more that this is the kind of cricket we want to play. Eventually, we said, “Don’t look at the table or anything like that.” Play for our mutual respect as cricket players.

We have faced many challenges and a great deal of time to reach this stage. As such, we cannot simply go out there and perform in a way that does not make you and the audience feel honored. They show up in large numbers, and we can’t continue to let them down in this manner. Therefore, as a team, we must step up and play for our pride. And now that we’re rolling, you start to wonder. “What if this momentum had caught up a week earlier?” because then we wouldn’t be dependent on so many outside variables, he added.