Virat Kohli hails RCB’s maturity and balance after second successive IPL title

Virat Kohli praised Royal Challengers Bengaluru's maturity, balance and collective effort after the franchise secured its second consecutive IPL title with a five-wicket win over Gujarat Titans. Kohli said confidence, composure and contributions from across the squad were key factors.

Hyderabad: King Kohli produced yet another classic to reconfirm his stature as the Chase Master in guiding Royal Challengers Bengaluru to its second straight trophy wini n the IPL with RCB scoring a five-wicket win against Gujarat Titans in the IPL final at Ahmedabad on Sunday night. “I said to a few other boys that it doesn’t feel like the same pressure as last year. We knew what kind of ability we have in the group. We topped the table. There’s a reason we got here first, and we just said one thing: if we stick to our cricket, if we execute our plans, we are the best team in the comp, and there’s a reason why we have done well so far in the group stage,” Kohli said after the match.

“We ended up topping the league stage. And yeah, just the skill sets we have, the maturity, the composure of the guys just showed through again tonight, and it was a clinical performance,” he said. “Well, to be fair, after the break [in early May], we had one loss. And then we had a close win against MI. I’d say that week was a bit tricky for us because we wanted to finish at the top. But as soon as we got that win against MI, the belief came back in. Then we had a comprehensive win against KKR, and then yeah, just ended up topping the table and just on our way to the finals,” Kohli said.. “It’s been amazing. I mean, we had to wait for so long and then you know… just to have a group of guys where you feel like when you are stepping on to the ground, you don’t need to be the one to step up every time. There is a guy behind you, around you, who can win games of cricket for you. We have so many Man-of-the-Match awards spread throughout the group as well.” saido ne of the all-time greats of the game.

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“I mean, you look at world-class bowling, like Hoff [Josh Hazlewood], Bhuv [Bhuvneshwar Kumar], Duff [Jacob Duffy], I mean, Krunal Pandya, you can bank on him as good as ever. Rasikh [Salam] Dar was brilliant this season. And all the batsmen chipped in as well. I feel so happy to be playing in a group where we have balance, we have strength and we are an all-round strong team. That’s why we have the confidence we have on the field right now.”