His team may have been at the receiving end of Ravindra Jadeja's all-round heroics, but Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli was not complaining about it.
According to Kohli, Jadeja’s current form augurs well for the Indian cricket team in the lead-up to this year's T20 World Cup.
"His (Jadeja) ability has been there for everyone to see. I am very happy to see him perform with the bat, ball and on the field," Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony after RCB’s embarrassing 69-run loss to CSK.
"After two months, he will be back playing for India and it is always a pleasure to see your premier all-rounder do well with the bat. When he plays well and is confident, it lets out many opportunities."
Batting at No. 5, Jadeja smashed 62 not out off 28 deliveries to propel CSK to a mammoth 191/4 before returning with the bowling figures of 3/13 in his four overs to restrict RCB to 122/9.
The highlight of Jadeja’s blazing knock was his assault on Harshal Patel in the last over of CSK’s innings. He whacked Harshal for 37 runs in the 20th over, which included 5 sixes and a four.
Commenting on the performance of Harshal, who dented CSK with three wickets in the middle overs, Kohli said: "(Harshal) bowled well and we will continue to back him. We will continue to give him responsibility, he got both the set batsmen out and plucked all the momentum away."
Chasing the target, RCB got off to a flier as they crossed 50 in five overs but lost the plot and brought to an end their four-match winning streak.
"You have to look at it the right way. I feel this is a positive feedback for our side. A performance like this, it is good to get this out early on in the tournament. Our start was decent enough.
"One guy completely beat us. Today his skill was there for everyone to see," the RCB captain said, referring to Jadeja's brilliance.
Virat Kohli also mentioned that he will continue to bat at the top, a role he has chosen for himself in the year of the T20 World Cup.
"We need to look at the loss in the right way. I am opening the innings with Dev (Devdutt Padikkal). We will continue to test our batting depth. As a batting side we are confident. We are going to switch the roles at some point," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
