Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan praised Virat Kohli for his aggressive batting against Jofra Archer during the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 on Sunday, April 2. The five-time champions suffered a crushing defeat against RCB as the host won the match by eight wickets. Kohli starred with the bat for RCB with an unbeaten 82-run knock off just 49 balls.
Irfan was asked about Kohli facing the lead bowlers and taking them on at big stages while referring to Archer from MI and Haris Rauf in the T20 World Cup last year. In reply, he stated that great players do this, citing Sachin Tendulkar's example. He went on to say that Tendulkar used to target big bowlers like Glenn McGrath or Shane Warne and that's exactly what Kohli was replicating.
"Great players do that. Sachin Tendulkar used to do that. He used to target the big bowlers in the opposition team, whether it was Glenn McGrath or Shane Warne, we have seen that repeatedly. Virat Kohli is also a player of the same stature. So he says that he will try to do even better when confronted with a challenge," Pathan said during a post-match discussion on Star Sports.
I was excited to watch the face-off between Jofra Archer and Virat Kohli: Irfan
The former left-arm speedster Irfan Pathan further added that he enjoyed watching the battle between Jofra Archer and Virat Kohli. Barring a dropped return catch off Jofra Archer's first ball, subsequently, Kohli came on top against the quick gun according to the 38-year-old.
"I was personally excited to watch the face-off between Jofra Archer and Virat Kohli. Virat Kohli won that contest this time. There was a chance on the first ball but after that, he didn't look behind. Only Jofra Archer was turning back as the ball was going beyond the boundary line," Pathan concluded.
Talking about the match, RCB skipper Faf du Plessis won the toss and invited MI to bat first. Rohit Sharma and Co. set a 172-run target after losing early wickets, with Tilak Varma scoring an unbeaten 84 off 46 balls. In the chase, Kohli and Du Plessis (73 off 43) put up a stellar batting display to hand RCB their first win in the lucrative league.
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