IPL 2023: 'We’ve seen this team crumble under pressure' — Zaheer praises RCB for rising to the occasion

Royal Challengers Bangalore took a big step toward IPL 2023 playoffs with a crucial eight-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday. The victory has given RCB an edge over Mumbai Indians in the race to the knockout phase.

Kohli scored 100 off 63 balls in RCB’s victory as the team moved to the fourth spot.

IPL 2023: Full coverage | Points table | Schedule | Results | Orange Cap | Purple Cap​

Former India pacer and JioCinema IPL expert Zaheer Khan has praised RCB for rising to the occasion and clinching a win in a pressure situation.

“All other teams in the points table were waiting for RCB to lose tonight, so there was pressure. We’ve seen this team crumble under pressure in previous seasons. From that lens, this inning is even more meaningful given how Klaasen batted for Hyderabad. After that, it seemed like this pitch wouldn’t be helpful to batters. It didn’t seem like that with Virat and that elevates the value of it,” the former RCB player said.

“Whenever Virat gets to hitting fours early, he hit four to five fours in his first two overs. He scored 22 runs and 20 of them were through fours. He built a strong platform and then took it into the zone. It seemed like we were going to see something special, and we got to see something special.”

IPL playoffs race scenarios: 7 teams fight for 3 spots

The SRH vs RCB game saw an incredibly rare feat of two players from both teams scoring centuries with Heinrich Klaasen and Virat Kohli did. Kohli’s match-winning effort will be remembered, but Klaasen’s knock was extremely impressive.

JioCinema TATA IPL expert Brett Lee praised both batters but was particularly impressed with what Kohli achieved, “It keeps getting better and better. Those two guys went out with the right intent. Klaasen was A-grade and then Kohli came in and just went bang.”

He added, “Some of those shots that Kohli played, the way I liked how he places things was, he gave himself a chance to talk. He wasn’t moving around a lot… When he’s playing shots like these, you know he’s on… They gave themselves a chance, both those guys, and you also have to give credit also to Faf du Plessis, who was a great ally and allowed Kohli to steal the game.”

RCB’s late-season form has put teams around the IPL on notice, which led to Brett Lee saying that Bangalore has a genuine shot of seeing the city’s first IPL title since the tournament’s inception, “RCB, they will give this IPL a red-hot crack. I have got them in my top four and watch out, they could win it this year.”

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.