Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan slammed Kolkata Knight Riders’ tactics against Virat Kohli after Ajinkya Rahane’s team suffered a six-wicket loss against RCB at Raipur on Wednesday. Kohli had bagged two ducks in the previous two matches against Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians and thus, the pressure was on him to score runs in the run chase of 193.

After debutant Saurabh Dubey bowled an impressive opening over against Jacob Bethell, Vaibhav Arora drifted the leg-side to give some freebies to Virat Kohli. Pathan reckons if Sunil Narine had opened the bowling for KKR, the veteran spinner would have been able to create some pressure on Kohli.

Kohli eventually went on to score a match-winning knock of 105 runs off just 60 balls with the help of 11 fours and three sixes. Thus, he was awarded the Player of the Match.

“If a player has been out twice on zero, the first run is very important for him. You must not give the first run easily, which KKR gave Virat. Maybe they could have given the very first over to Sunil Narine. I feel that would have been very important. There is a difference in scoring that first run off a fast bowler and a spinner. They were unable to create that pressure,” he said on his YouTube channel.

Narine has dismissed Virat Kohli on four occasions in the IPL and has all the experience under his belt.

Pathan reckons KKR should have scored more runs and furthermore, he noted that Rovman Powell dropped Kohli when he was on just 21 runs.

“Kolkata scored fewer runs. I had told even before the game began that there would be more runs scored on this wicket comparatively. Kolkata could have scored more. They also dropped Kohli’s catch, which should have been taken. You must take such chances,” he stated.

KKR will next take on Gujarat Titans at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on Saturday.