Virat Kohli said losing six games in a row hurt RCB's chances in IPL 2019
Losing half a dozen of matches in one go did hurt his team's pride and a fabulous turnaround could be attributed to players enjoying their game, said Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli.
RCB has won four out of their last five games and there is an outside chance of their playoff qualification if they can win the remaining three games.
"The only focus was to play well as a team. Losing six in a row really hurt us. Literally no one in the team has been part of such a streak," Kohli said at the post-match press conference.
"Yeah, we've won four of the five. Could have been five out of five. We were just looking to enjoy the cricket and tonight was a great example of having fun. So we just refreshed, thought about just enjoying ourselves and the important thing now is not to take on any pressure. We know how we play. The world knows how we play," the skipper said.
On Wednesday, Navdeep Saini's fabulous penultimate over kept Royal Challengers Bangalore afloat as they beat Kings XI Punjab by 17 runs in at the M. Chinnaswamy.
AB de Villiers' unbeaten 82 off 44 balls took RCB to a healthy 202 for 4 and things could have gone awry with young Nicholas Pooran (46 off 28 balls) hitting five sixes at the rear before Saini sealed it in the 19th over. Kings XI Punjab finished at 185 for 7 as RCB are now on eight points with three games left.
Needing 30 off the last two, Saini (2/33), who is one of India's fastest bowlers produced a hostile over in which he removed the dangerous David Miller and Pooran but more importantly gave away only three runs.
Saini bowled fast and into the body of the batsmen, who couldn't really get going and his aggression became the defining factor in the end.
Defending 27 runs off the final over, Umesh Yadav (3/36) was better than the other night against CSK as he got a couple of wickets.
With four wins in the last five games, RCB will hope to win the remaining three and expect a few favourable results to make it to the play-offs as rank outsiders.
