Virat Kohli, captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), has been fined for maintaining a slow over-rate during their 97-run defeat to Kings XI Punjab in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
"Royal Challengers Bangalore Captain Virat Kohli has been fined after his team maintained a slow over-rate during their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 match against Kings XI Punjab in Dubai on 24 September 2020," the league said in a statement.
"As it was his team's first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Kohli was fined Rs 12 lakh," the statement added.
On Thursday evening, Kohli opted to field first against Kings XI, operating with three fast bowlers in Dale Steyn, Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Batting first, Kings XI posted a monstrous target of 207 for the RCB, riding on a brilliant century from skipper KL Rahul who played an unbeaten knock of 132 runs off just 69 balls. The innings lasted a little over an hour and 50 minutes.
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He dropped his Kings XI Punjab counterpart KL Rahul twice – once in the 17th over at deep square-leg when he was batting on 83 and then again in the 18th over when he was on 89. The two drops proved to be costly as Rahul smashed an unbeaten 132 enabling KXIP to post 206 for 3 batting first.
Reacting to his lapses in the field, Kohli said he is ready to take the criticism but true fans are still supporting him.
“I have to stand in front and take the brunt of it, not the best day in the office, couple of important chances of KL when he was set and that cost us 35-40 runs at a later stage. Maybe if we restricted them to 180 we wouldn’t have been under pressure from ball one of the chase. We know exactly where we went wrong and I have to put my hand up and say shoud’ve led from the front and taken those two chances,” said Virat Kohli at the post-match presentation.
Chasing the target, RCB struggled right from the start and were eventually bundled out for 109 in the 17th over.
While Kings XI will next face Rajasthan Royals on Sunday, RCB will lock horns with Mumbai Indians on Monday.