Kohli took 67 balls to get to his century

I felt RCB scored about 20 runs less: Sehwag

The entire pressure was on Kohli: Sehwag

Despite having scored a century, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) opener Virat Kohli was under the radar of critics for his strike rate. Kohli took 67 balls to get to his century which is the highest for any batsman in IPL history. Despite only having lost 3 wickets throughout the innings, RCB were unable to accelerate their scoring rate in the final phase of their innings. RCB eventually lost with one over to spare. 

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Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag despite being sympathetic to Kohli, expressed his reservation at how his innings was paced. “I felt RCB scored about 20 runs less. About Virat Kohli, his knock was great, but there was nobody to support him. Karthik did not come…so there were no big hitters to accompany him and those who came did not work. Yes, Kohli’s strike rate should have definitely increased because when you score 50 in 39 balls, then you tend to score at a quicker rate thereafter. The strike rate automatically then almost touches 200. He made a mistake there for sure. But then the rest of the batters did not do anything. The entire pressure was on Kohli. Moreover, it is his role to hold one end of the crease and allow batters on the other end to flourish, on whom RCB spent so much to acquire them – Maxwell, Green,” he said in an interaction with Cricbuzz.