Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli didn't put the blame on his team's bowlers for Thursday's (September 24) 97-run defeat against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) after conceding a huge total of 206/3.
Instead, the skipper pointed out the drop catches of KXIP's rampaging opener KL Rahul by himself in the field, which he felt made the telling difference.
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Speaking at the post-match press presentation, Kohli thought had he not given Rahul those reprieves, he wouldn't have continued with his outstanding innings and reached 132 not out in just 69 deliveries to put RCB under greater pressure from ball one in the second half.
"I have to stand in front and take the brunt of it, not the best day in the office, couple of important chances of KL when he was set and that cost us 35-40 runs at a later stage. Maybe if we restricted them to 180 we wouldn't have been under pressure from ball one of the chase," said Kohli.
RCB collapsed to 109 all out inside 17 overs, with all-rounder Washinton Sundar top-scoring (30) for his team. AB de Villiers (28) and Aaron Finch were the only others to reach double digits.
"We know exactly where we went wrong and I have to put my hand up and say a couple of important chances went down. There are days when these kind of things happen on the cricket field, they happen and we have to accept them," said Kohli.
"We have had a good game (against Sunrisers Hyderabad), we have had a bad game and now it is time to move on and learn from the mistakes we made."
Kohli also explained what was the thought behind dropping himself a position lower in the batting order and sending in young Josh Philippe at No.3.
"He has batted at the top of the order for Western Australia and done well in the BBL as well, early days in the tournament so we thought we will maximise his ability and see how we go from there on. We thought we will give ourselves a bit of depth in the middle overs," he said.
RCB next face defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in Dubai on Monday (September 28).
(Inputs from PTI)
