'It still hurts' - Virat Kohli reflects on heartbreaking loss to Hyderabad in 2016 Indian T20 League final

Former Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli shed light on how the team felt after losing the final of the Indian T20 League in 2016 against Hyderabad. Batting first, Hyderabad amassed 208/7, thanks to skipper David Warner (69), Yuvraj Singh (38), and Ben Cutting (39*). For Bangalore, Chris Jordan took three, while Sreenath Aravind and Yuzvendra Chahal took two and one wickets respectively.

Advertisment

In reply, skipper Virat Kohli (54) and Chris Gayle (76) stitched an opening partnership of 114 runs. With 95 runs needed in 9.3 overs and nine wickets in hand, they looked like winning their first-ever ITL trophy but that remained a distant dream. They were restricted to 200/7 runs with no other batter scoring significantly.

Reacting on the game, the 33-year-old couldn't believe what transpired in the game given how they played in the tournament. “I felt like it was written. How can the final be in Bangalore, and we play a season like that, we play that kind of a game where we are 100-something without a wicket in 9 overs and then” (we collapse), said Kohli on RCB podcast on YouTube.

The 2016 Orange Cap winner added that his former teammate in the tournament KL Rahul still takes the screenshots of the game whenever the highlight package runs on Star Sports. “To this date, when there is a highlight package coming on Star of that game, KL takes screenshots from that game and says it still hurts. And it does. You’d think about the game every now and then and how there were dejected faces in that amazing setup we had done for the post-victory celebration. It was such a huge setup, and we were sat there thinking we gave our everything,” he added.