Virat Kohli was a dejected captain after Royal Challengers Bangalore’s humiliating 30-run defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals on Saturday (May 19). With this loss, the Bangalore-based franchise also let slip the opportunity to seal the playoff spot in IPL 2018.

Chasing the target of 165, RCB were placed at 75/1 after 8 overs. However, Shreyas Gopal’s awe-inspiring spell changed the course of the game as he scalped four wickets in quick succession to reduce RCB to 98/6. AB De Villiers was the lone warrior for RCB with 53 runs off 35 balls.

Reflecting on his team’s performance at the post-match presentation ceremony, Kohli said: “it was a strange one. We were in a great position. 75/1, and the way we were bundled out wasn’t ideal. Someone like AB who can hit fours and sixes was knocking it around so the others didn’t support him and apply themselves properly. We needed more smart decision-making there. These things should be repeated by 5-6 guys in a row. We wanted to strengthen the middle-order which hasn’t happened, it hasn’t been our strength and we need to do that going into the next few seasons. We need to be smarter with composing our team.”

“The responsibility cannot be taken up only by AB all the time. He certainly scored runs, but others need to contribute around him and didn’t show enough composure,” he added.

Talking about the positives from this season for RCB, Virat asserted: “There were some new players who did well. Umesh bowled extremely well with the new ball, Chahal was great, Siraj and Moeen contributed too, so plenty of positives to take into the next season. However, after cruising at 75/1 it was disappointing that we couldn’t finish it off well.”

Like always, the India and RCB skipper showed his sportsmanship spirit and wished all the others teams a very good look for the remainder of the competition.

“I would like to wish all the other teams the best of luck for the remainder of the competition,” Kohli concluded.