“Intent To Hit Boundaries Goes Out”: Ex RCB Star Aaron Finch On Virat Kohli’s Strike-Rate

Royal Challengers Bengaluru returned to winning ways with a victory against high-flying Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Batting first, RCB managed to put over 200 runs on the board, with Virat Kohli contributing 51 runs. But, it was Rajat Patidar who bagged the Player of the Match award, having also scored a half-century, but at a much higher strike-rate in comparison. As RCB’s batting ended, an intense chatter around Kohl’s intent and strike-rate began, with the star batter getting criticised for his 43-ball 51. (IPL 2024 Points Table)

After the powerplay, Virat found it incredibly tough to hit boundaries, resulting in a big slowdown in his strike-rate. In fact, he only scored 19 runs from the last 25 deliveries he faced. Delving on the subject, former RCB and Australia batter Aaron Finch said that Kohli’s knock shouldn’t be looked at in isolation.

“I think it is a combination of a few things here. Yes, he got off to an absolute flyer. But after the powerplay, he dropped to 19 from 25. But one thing you have to keep in mind is that Patidar was going crazy at the other end. Sometimes your job as a set batter is to take the game a little bit deeper and get Patidar on strike as much as possible. That’s where the intent to hit boundaries goes out,” said Finch on Star Sports.

While there’s no denying that there was a sharp decline in Virat’s strike-rate in the second-half of his innings, Finch said that sometimes batters tend to do that seeing their partner at the other end of the pitch going all guns blazing.

“You can look at him in isolation and say ‘yes it dropped.’ But as a partnership, it worked really well. Because the last thing you want when you’re on fire is to be stuck at the non-striker’s end a lot. He did the right thing by getting Patidar up there,” asserted Finch.