RCB captain Kohli hails team after close win over Chennai

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli hailed his players for showing character in the thrilling five-wicket win over formidable Chennai Super Kings which kept their hopes alive of making it to the play-offs in the Indian Premier League, in Ranchi, on Sunday.

"Great win for us, especially after the wicket played in the second innings. Today was a great example of the character in the side. You have [Chris] Gayle hitting out there, then AB [de Villiers] and Yuvi [Yuvraj] in such for, you back your team," Kohli said after his side's victory which kept them in the hunt for a play-off berth.

"It was about rotating strike as much as possible and hitting with the turn and not trying something fancy. Because with the old ball, it was not turning as much so you can stay on the backfoot and work it away."

"I did not send any message. Yuvi told me he wanted Abu Nechim to get a single, but he just stepped out and slammed the ball for six. That's the belief players have now," he added.

Man of the match de Villiers, who blasted a quickfire 28 from 14 balls, said the wicket was a difficult one to play shots.

"Probably one of the most difficult wickets that I played on. I got some of the balls away. I looked foolish a couple of times and took it to the end. I was disappointed to get out at the time, but Yuvi did it for us in the end," he said.

Chennai captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his side were 10 runs short after they failed to hit even a single boundary in the last four overs.

"They [Bangalore] bowled very well, especially in the last four overs. We lost five to 10 runs and if not more," he said.

Dhoni, however, praised his slow bowlers for making a match out of it after Chennai scored a modest 138 for four after electing to bat.

"We knew the pitch would slow down further, the spinners did maintain the pressure and that's one of the reasons why the game went close," said Dhoni.

Asked if a pattern is developing, with such close losses so close to the play-offs, Dhoni said, "Not really, the best thing about statistics is we can have a pattern and it changes.

"It's something the commentators can talk about and they have to talk about something," he said.