IPL 2020 | RCB skipper Kohli fined ₹12 lakh for slow over-rate

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli has been fined ₹12 lakh after his team maintained a slow over-rate during their Indian Premier League match against Kings XI Punjab here.

RCB were thrashed by 97 runs in the match on Thursday night.

“As it was his team’s first offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Mr. Kohli was fined ₹12 lakh,” the IPL said in a release.

The Indian batting mainstay had a forgettable outing at the Dubai International Stadium.

While he dropped two catches of centurion KL Rahul, which proved to be costly, Kohli also could not contribute anything substantial with the willow.

On the other hand, his KXIP counterpart Rahul shattered a few record on the way to a 69-ball 132 — the highest scored by an Indian in an IPL game.

Takes blame for dropping Rahul twice

Kohli dropped Rahul twice — once in the 17th over at deep square-leg when he was batting on 83 and then again in the 18th over when he was on 89.

Kohli took the blame for dropping Kings XI Punjab skipper KL Rahul twice, which contributed significantly to their defeat on Thursday.

Kohli felt had he not dropped two catches off the blade of Rahul, who remained unbeaten on 132, KXIP would not have been able to go past the 200-run mark.

“I have to stand in front and take the brunt of it, not the best day in the office, couple of important chances of KL when he was set and that cost us 35-40 runs at a later stage.

“Maybe if we restricted them to 180 we wouldn’t have been under pressure from ball one of the chase,” said Kohli at the post-match presentation

The lapses helped KXIP score an imposing 206 for 3, with Rahul doing the bulk of scoring.