Bengaluru, March 29 (IANS): With Friday in IPL 2024 set to witness a high-octane clash between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, former India pacer Varun Aaron thinks talismanic batter Virat Kohli will just have to look at the visitors’ dugout, which has Gautam Gambhir as mentor, to be fired up in the match.
Kohli made a match-winning 77 off 49 balls in RCB’s win over Punjab Kings (PBKS) at their home ground earlier this week. Aaron’s comments come after Kohli and Gambhir had a heated clash in IPL 2023 when the latter was the mentor of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), which led to both being fined 100% of their respective match fee.
“I'm looking forward to the match up outside the boundary line. Gautam Gambhir is going to be at the boundary line right beside the RCB dugout, don't know what's going to happen there, I think, you know how Virat is, he likes to have some fire all the time, and if he just looks at the KKR dugout, he's just going to be fired up," said Aaron to TV broadcasters Star Sports.
Steve Smith, the Australian batter currently working as a pundit in the tournament, is also excited about the RCB-KKR face-off. "Yeah, that's a nice battle to look for. The rivalry is not going to be any different. I'm looking forward to it. Virat was outstanding last game, he showed some real ominous signs, and I'm looking forward to that contest tomorrow (at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium)."
Smith also spoke on the maturity shown by Riyan Parag in his match-winning 84 not out off 45 balls in Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) 12-run win over Delhi Capitals (DC) on Thursday. "Yeah, I think he's matured a lot, and I think just the way the innings was constructed, he took the pressure off early by just knocking it around, playing really smart cricket, building a few partnerships after the loss of 3 wickets.
"And then just set a really strong foundation to go hard at the back end, and when he decided to pull the trigger, he did it to effect and connected with the middle of the bat consistently, getting them up to 185. Just getting back to that last over, if they had only given 10 runs it would be a completely different story. The ability to chip one of the best bowlers in the world out of the park changed the whole complexion of the game."
The Australian also commented on left-arm fast-bowler Nandre Burger’s performance, where he took out Mitchell Marsh and Ricky Bhui in quick succession in DC’s chase of 186, where they eventually fell short. "Yeah, it was a big performance and Mitch Marsh was looking in ominous touch, striking very heavily, and you know how dangerous he is as a player.”
“So yeah, he came in and bowled at some really good pace, good aggression which led to those two wickets which enabled the spinners to come on after that, put a bit of pressure and squeeze the middle overs.”