Virat Kohli and the reason for sending AB De Villiers to bat at 6 against KXIP

Virat Kohli, the skipper of Royal Challengers Bangalore, has defended the decision of sending AB de Villiers to bat at no. 6 against Kings XI Punjab. Surprisingly, AB de Villiers came to bat at no. 6 and failed to give any performance as RCB lost the game by eight wickets.

Earlier this week against Kolkata Knight Riders, de Villiers had played an amazing knock of unbeaten 73 off only 33 deliveries. He had come out to bat at his usual number four position. However, RCB chose to keep him back against KXIP after losing their openers within the first seven overs.

Ahead of the former South Africa skipper, Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube were sent to bat. However, the move backfired for the team. Dube scored 23 off 19 and Sundar scored 13 off 14. Finally, during the 17^th over of RCB innings, AB de Villiers came out to bat. However, he lasted for only five balls and managed to score 2 runs only.

Virat Kohli explains the reason

Virat Kohli defended the decision, speaking at the post-match conference. He explained in detail the reason behind sending de Villiers out to bat at number six. The RCB captain said the perceptive behind it was to keep up the left-hand, right-hand mix for the team.

“We had a chat, it (AB batting at no. 6) was a message about the left-hand, right-hand combination. Sometimes these decisions you take, don’t come off. But I think 170 was a decent score,” said Virat Kohli.

RCB completed their innings on 171 at the loss of 6 wickets in the designated 20 overs. It seemed that they would complete their innings under 160 runs after both de Villiers and Kohli left in the eighteenth over when the score was 136. However, Chris Morris played a fine role and scored 25 from only 8 balls to take his side to a tricky total for KXIP to chase.

However, this tricky total didn’t help RCB to win the game. KXIP chased the target down and registered their second win of the ongoing IPL season. KXIP skipper, KL Rahul and hitman Chris Gayle scored half-centuries and guided their team to a much-needed win.

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