Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper was unhappy with the result after his team were handed a reality check in the 2019 Indian Premier League opening match as defending champions Chennai Super Kings bundled out RCB for a paltry total of 70 and evidently winning the match by 7 wickets at the M Chidambaram stadium in Chennai.
On a tricky pitch that assisted slow bowlers, RCB were shot out for 70 in 17.1 overs, a target that CSK achieved in 17.4 overs.
RCB in defeat maintained their inglorious record against CSK and also had the ignominy of ending with the sixth lowest total in the league.
Kohli on his part said: "The wicket looked much better than it played. We though 140-150 would be an ideal score. A scrappy sort of start but either team would have struggled batting first," the RCB skipper said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
However, for Kohli, the relief was that a match like this happened at the start of the tournament.
"No one wants to start like this, but it's good to get a game like this out of the way - this early in the tournament. We spoke of trying to be in the game, taking it to the 18th over was nice to see," the RCB captain said.
Once Harbhajan's finger spinners had inflicted a telling damage on the psyche of the RCB line-up, Imran Tahir (3/9 in 4 overs) tormented the visitors even more with his googlies that killed the contest in the first half.
With so much assistance for spinners, Ravindra Jadeja wasn't going to be left behind, finishing with 2/15 in 4 overs.
"The batting wasn't good, it wasn't easy to bat on, looked much better surface though, I thought 140-150 would have been an ideal score, especially with dew expected later on.
"A scrappy start to the league, but I don't think either team had control over it, the pitch was under the covers for 4 days, but we should have batted better, 110-120 would have been a fighting score," he said.
The pitch wasn't an easy one to bat on but 70 was too small a total to defend for RCB even though they stretched CSK for nearly 18 overs.
RCB will hope to pull up their socks in the next match as they host rivals Mumbai Indians on March 28.
