Virat Kohli made Gujarat Titans pay for a costly missed catch as he guided Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a brilliant win in their IPL 2026 encounter on Friday. Kohli, who ended up scoring 81 runs off 44 deliveries, was dropped in the very first over of the RCB innings when Washington Sundar failed to take a simple catch at mid-wicket off Mohammed Siraj‘s bowling. Legendary West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop was sympathetic towards the fielder and said that anyone can drop catches before advising Washington to work on his fielding as he has committed a number of errors in the past as well.
“No, I see that differently. We have all dropped catches. You don’t pick and choose which ones you drop. But what I would ask Washy is that your level of fielding has got to go up. He’s a young guy, athletic enough,” said Bishop on ESPNcricinfo ‘TimeOut’.
“For too long, I have been seeing missed opportunities with him. So I would ask him to put a little more work in that so he becomes an asset in the field in addition to all the other things,” he added.
South Africa great Dale Steyn also agreed with Bishop but said that one cannot drop a player of Kohli’s calibre.
“Can’t drop Kohli. The guy who’s gonna be one of the best chasers in the world. That catch, actually, doesn’t matter who it is; you just can’t drop that. That’s ten out of ten times, you should be taking that,” said Steyn.
Bishop hailed the elegant southpaw for his knock and called for the rest of the batting line-up to step up in terms of scoring rates.
Despite Sudharsan’s 58-ball 100, the rest of the Titans’ line-up failed to chip in enough runs, making 105 runs in the remaining 62 balls and the target of 206 runs turned out to be a rather easy one for Virat Kohli (81) and Devdutt Padikkal (55), who scored flashy, stroke-filled half-centuries to kill the game within the first 10 overs itself.
One of the key reasons perhaps behind GT’s failure to chip in those extra runs was Gill’s knock of 32 in 24 balls, with two fours and a six, striking at just over 133 on a batting paradise in Bengaluru.
Speaking during the ESPNCricinfo’s ‘Timeout’ show, Bishop said that Sudharsan needed to step up with his aggression, which he did.
“He is one of the guys who needed to step up his aggression level. For the most part of that innings, I thought he was outstanding for a very orthodox player. I think that hundred would be very, very pleasing for him and for the GT dugout, and for the IPL as a whole, because here is another guy who gets another hundred – they have been coming in thick and fast in the last week and a half, has not it?” he said.
“He certainly did his part. If we are asking other guys that should have stepped up, at least Sai Sudarshan did his part,” he added.
(With ANI inputs)
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