Gautam Gambhir has explained what went wrong for Virat Kohli in the match against Kings XI Punjab.
Royal Challengers Bangalore faced a crushing defeat in their second match of the season, as Kings XI Punjab defeated Virat Kohli's men by 97 runs on Thursday. KXIP's captain KL Rahul scored an unbeaten century in the game, while also creating the record for the highest score by a captain in the history of the tournament.
KXIP scored 60 runs in the final three overs of the match, and captain Kohli faced significant criticism for giving the last over of the innings to Shivam Dube. He had completed Navdeep Saini's quota in the 18th over.
Gautam Gambhir, the former Indian cricketer and two-time IPL champion as captain, was critical of Kohli's gameplan towards the final stages of KXIP innings.
“I know Shivam Dube bowled really well in his first two overs. Yes, you would be tempted to give him a third over, but not the last over. When KL Rahul is already set and batting on 100+, you are walking on the edge, because that can happen,” Gambhir said on ESPNCricinfo.
“I would have Navdeep Saini or Dale Steyn bowling the last over, even though Steyn is not the best death over. But I would have given the last over to the best bowler of the team,” Gambhir said.
He further said that bowling Dube in the final over was a "bad calculation."
“You finished off Navdeep Saini in the 17th over. Probably, you could have used Umesh Yadav, who did not have the best of the days. But Shivam Dube bowling the last over was a bad calculation,” said the former Indian cricketer.
“Had KL Rahul got out for 86-89, Kings XI woudl have scored 185, and chasing that would have been completely different gameplan for RCB. That is how it happened, that is what T20 cricket. Small mistakes can make a huge difference as well. It was a huge impact, especially from those results point of view."
