He struggled to get going in the first match against Chennai Super Kings, there were question marks over his fitness and form, and when AB de Villiers walked out to bat against Mumbai Indians, the target was stiff. He was dropped by Yuvraj Singh in the slips when he was not even off the mark, but then the man found his groove.
After knocking around in the initial few overs, he found his range, he enamoured Chinnaswamy just like the way he has always done in his career so far. Kohli departed, the chase was getting tricky, but de Villiers stuck to his guns. He screamed to his 50, breached 4000 IPL runs and then took down Hardik Pandya in the 18th over.
ABD chants reverberated around the ground as he took guard against Jasprit Bumrah. And Bumrah was absolutely brilliant in the 19th over, mixing his lengths and pace and it even bamboozled a marauding de Villiers. The fast bowler got rid of Colin de Grandhomme in the process.
Malinga bowled the final over, he defended 17 runs and even though, the final ball was a no ball which was not spotted by the umpire, MI won the match by 6 runs.
This is how Twitter responded:
Peak IPL #RCBvMI
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) March 28, 2019
Kohli has started #IPL2019 by losing to teams led by his former captain and current vice captain #RCBvMI
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) March 28, 2019
Sorry.. but umpires are missing too many no balls these days.. time for another umpire on the ground to call no balls! #fedup
— Dean Jones (@ProfDeano) March 28, 2019
Brilliant from Bumrah. No bowler in the world like him in the ‘death’
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) March 28, 2019
Kohli was not pleased after the match and said, "We are playing at the IPL level and not playing club cricket. The umpires should have had their eyes open. That is a ridiculous call at the last ball. If it is a game of margins, I don't know what is happening."
Drama ? #RCBvMI
— Robin John Peterson (@robbie13flair) March 28, 2019
Technology should be used much more often in cricket ... so many front foot no-balls missed all the time in all formats and only checked on dismissal. Should be as simple as 3rd umpire telling the umpire through ear piece that a no ball has been bowled.
— Faf Du Plessis (@faf1307) March 28, 2019
Candid post match talk by @ImRo45 with @sanjaymanjrekar on poor umpiring. Can't have 3rd class umpiring in a high class tournament. Raise your standards umpires!
— shishir hattangadi (@shishhattangadi) March 28, 2019
Talking about the game, the RCB captain said, "They should have been more sharp and careful out there. When they were 145 for 7, we should have done better. The last few overs were brutal for us. A few more strikes apart from AB could have done the job for us. We need to be smarter at death bowling. Sure they guys will take a lot of learnings from the game. I think the way they bowled, we can learn from their game. The onus is always on each and every member of the team. I got out at a wrong point of time. Shivam was good as well."
The Indian captain also reserved praise for his international teammate Jaspirt Bumrah when he said that the Mumbai Indians pacer is the best bowler in the world at the moment. "I mean Jassi is a top-class bowler. A bit of a mistake from me to take him on at that stage. Mumbai is lucky to have him. And also Malinga. And if Jassi is in good form, it is good for India," Kohli said.
