Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower has provided an update on Virat Kohli’s finger injury sustained during the side's IPL 2025 match against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Wednesday (April 2).
On the fifth ball of 12th over of GT's chase, Sai Sudharsan played a sweep shot while facing Krunal Pandya. Virat Kohli, who was positioned at deep mid-wicket, hurt his finger as he tried to field the ball. It went through Kohli's hands and raced away for a boundary, also leaving the RCB star in pain.
While the Bengaluru fans were left concerned about the injury, Flower's update suggests that all is well with Kohli.
"Virat looks fine, he's okay," said Flower in the post-match press conference.
RCB suffered an eight-wicket defeat against GT at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Pacer Mohammed Siraj, who wasn’t retained by the Bengaluru-based franchise during the mega auction last year, starred with the ball in Gujarat’s victory.
Flower felt Siraj was head and shoulders above the rest. He wished him all the "success" in the world while affirming that the franchise is "happy" with the current squad.
"Siraj bowled very well, didn't he? It is great for him to come here and do that. I thought he bowled an outstanding spell with the new ball. His lines were tight, and the lengths were good. He threatened the stumps a lot," Flower stated.
Siraj returned with the figures of 3 for 19 in his four overs, helping GT restrict RCB to 169/8 in 20 overs. The right-arm quick could have extended his stay in Bengaluru but Flower isn't dwelling on the missed opportunity.
"We all rate Siraj very highly, and we love him. I think we had a good auction. I wish him all the success in the world. We are happy with the squad that we have got," the RCB coach remarked.
Chasing 170, the Titans got over the line with eight wickets in hand and 13 deliveries to spare. Jos Buttler starred with the bat as he scored 73* off 39 balls, while Sai Sudharsan (49 off 36) and Sherfane Rutherford (30* off 18) made notable contributions with the bat.
Reflecting on the loss, Flower said: "When they came out chasing a smaller total than what is normal in Chinnaswamy, you could see they played more carefully in powerplay and tried to keep wickets in hand. We played aggressively in the powerplay and lost four wickets in the powerplay. So that was obviously a big swing in the game. Often, if you lose in the powerplay, you are in trouble."
"They were very different powerplays. I thought we scrapped very well after the powerplay. I think the toss was reasonably important. There was quite a lot of dew out there. I think the dry ball did grip off the seam, and I think that was fairly important in the context of the game. It wasn't a typical Chinnaswamy wicket, where you expect the ball to come quicker than that. GT played better than us and were sharper than us," he added.
(With ANI Inputs)
