IPL 2023: Tom Moody slams RCB great for ‘not maximising’ total against PBKS

Virat Kohli returned as RCB skipper after two years. He and Faf du Plessis registered a 137-run opening partnership. Both scored half-centuries. RCB put up a pretty good total against PBKS and in the end, won the IPL 2023 match quite comfortably by 24 runs.

IPL 2023: Tom Moody said on ESPNCricinfo –

“That’s not pretty reading, isn’t it? At the end of the day, that’s something that needs to be looked at.” A host of former cricketers including Matthew Hayden, Rohan Gavaskar, Simon Doull, Michael Vaughan and now Tom Moody are not particularly pleased with the way Kohli batted? The reason is the RCB stalwart’s strike rate.

Moody also did not agree with former Indian cricketer Amol Mazumdar, who believed it would have been alright if Kohli had batted all the way and improved his strike rate towards the latter half of the RCB innings. He said – “I know Amol said that it’s okay if Virat batted till the end but it’s not really okay because they are not maximising as a team, the total they need to be getting.”

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Moody further said –

“They didn’t lose their first wicket till they scored 137 and the bulk of the innings was gone. If you have one of the batters striking at 125 after batting that long period of time you from a team perspective is not maximising your score.”

Moody further added – “Clearly, Virat is dominating the powerplay but (in the middle overs) whether it’s strategic or he is just getting stuck in the middle needs to be addressed if RCB are to maximise their total.”