It felt almost like a Test dismissal as Moeen Ali castled Virat Kohli with a loopy off-spinner that sneaked through and rattled the woodwork. Kohli on Wednesday notched up a scratchy 30 off 33 deliveries before the England all-rounder got him out with a delivery pitched outside off on a turning surface in the IPL game between RCB and CSK at the MCA Stadium, Pune. (Follow IPL 2022 Coverage)
Kohli’s dismissal was a repeat of the Chennai Test last year. Ali had stunned Kohli with a turning delivery, cleaning him up for a duck just after facing 5 balls. The India skipper looked shocked and waited for a few seconds in the middle to confirm what had happened before walking off.
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Kohli, who has amassed just 175 runs with a top score of 58 this season, laboured at a strike rate that was less than run-a-ball. He played 16 dot balls against Chennai and was also involved in a mix-up with Maxwell, who was run-out for just three.
Former RCB skipper Daniel Vettori blamed it on the star batter’s “intent” but also credited Ali for setting up Kohli. “I can think of the likes of a R Ashwin or a Harbhajan (Singh) bowling really quickly to him in the powerplay and him just looking for singles, and potentially not dominating them. But this is different,” Vettori said on ESPNcricinfo’s ‘T20 Time Out’.
“This is Moeen Ali trying to spin the ball, wide of off stump and I feel like I can see that dismissal a few times in Test matches.
“And that is a huge amount of credit to Moeen Ali and his style of bowling – the fact that he was able to hit those areas with a little bit of drift, then that quick spin. So, this type of bowling seems to have troubled him (Kohli) a little bit as of now,” he added.
Vettori said Maxwell’s dismissal may have toned down Kohli but underlined the Indian’s lack of foot movement as well. In the ongoing IPL edition, Kohli has scored runs at a strike rate of just 111.09, which is the third-lowest among batters with at least 150 runs.
“But it just feels like it comes down to intent: at no stage did Kohli look like he was going for anything but a single. So, you plant foot down the crease, and you wait for the ball to come. If the ball is in the right spot, you can’t manipulate a single,” Vettori explained.
“And Kohli at his best takes on off-spin because he’s aggressive, he hits them straight, and then he hits his hard ones. So, it is all about intent. And maybe the loss of the wicket, the run-out of Maxwell just put him back in his cage, and he thought ‘I need to bat for an extended period of time’. But he is good enough to use his feet against Moeen Ali.”
