RCB teammate Duffy has no answers to Kohli’s batting brilliance

Auckland: Star batter Virat Kohli on Wednesday helped India register a five-wicket win over New Zealand in the first ODI with an imperious 74, prompting an awestruck Kiwi pacer Jacob Duffy to say there was “no hole” in the maestro’s game.

Kohli’s knock came off just 51 balls, helping India chase down a revised target of 143 with 56 balls to spare in the rain-curtailed match.

Duffy, who was Kohli’s teammate in the title-winning Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) side in IPL 2026, has experienced the Indian batter’s prowess at the RCB nets.

“Yeah, it was a bit annoying, wasn’t it?” Duffy joked at the post-match press conference.

“Yeah, small targets like that, if you get a guy to come out with that kind of intent to knock it off, it can break the chase pretty easily. And he’s a pretty good guy to do it. Quite impressive, wasn’t he?

“He didn’t struggle with the bounce. He got inside those hook shots, pull shots, and then he could whack you down the ground. No surprise, he’s a good player. He’s done it for a lot of years, and he did that to me in the nets a lot in Bangalore.”

The 32-year-old, however, wondered whether Kohli would adopt the same approach if India were batting first and setting a target.

“If they’re batting first or there’s a bigger score on the board, it would be interesting to see if he plays like that. I’m not sure, I don’t know if he will.

“I won’t give away all their scouting tips. I did get some intel at the nets in Bangalore, but there’s not many holes in his game, to be fair.

“Small grounds like that, he uses the pace really well, and then he can hit you over your head as well. So, there’s not many holes in that man’s game,” he added.

The right-arm pacer also praised the Indian bowlers, particularly Gurnoor Brar (3/44), who troubled New Zealand with disconcerting bounce, and Arshdeep Singh (4/70).

The 6-foot-5-inch Brar repaid skipper Shubman Gill’s faith by intimidating the home batters with his pace and bounce, while Arshdeep provided support as the visitors dismissed the Black Caps for a below-par 185 in 40.2 overs.

“Yeah, probably 180 at Eden Park is never going to be enough. Obviously, I think they bowled really well. They’ve got some big boys in that bowling team and they use the bounce of the surface really well.

“So, yeah, they did that well, and we probably just wanted our best with the bat to start with. Pretty tough to defend 180, and then they can just come hard like that and knock a few off pretty quick.”

New Zealand reduced India to 136/5 in the 22nd over, but Duffy said the fightback came too little, too late.

“To be honest, probably a little bit too little, too late. But there’s still things to gain out there. We showed our intent for the series. We’re not going to back down; we’re going to come hard at these guys and show what we’ve got.

“In this situation, the short ball seemed to work a little bit, so that was the option, to put our stamp on the series, I guess.”

Asked whether defending targets was proving difficult for New Zealand given the conditions, he said:

“It’s a tough one. Yeah, it definitely plays a part. I think we’re lying if we say it’s not. Everyone wants to toss some balls for us for a reason. I’m not saying it’s impossible, don’t get me wrong. It’s not like it’s huge, it’s not like we’re giving up as soon as we’ve lost a toss.

“But as soon as you get a little bit of moisture in the wicket, I thought tonight there’s a bit of wind around and we actually might not, but I guess the rain sort of adds that moisture that the dew would have otherwise.

“So when it skid on like that, it sort of takes away the tackiness and that sort of tennis-ball bounce we saw in their innings, which I thought made the ball behave differently. Yeah, they’re batting hard.”

Asked whether New Zealand should have been more counter-attacking with the bat, as India were later, Duffy said:

“Yeah, it’s a tricky one. Like I said, credit to them, they bowled very well. They extracted the bounce very well, and very tall bowlers at the seam and extracted that bounce. I think you saw when the guys did try to sort of lift the ante or play some shots, then quite a few went straight up.

“I think we will adapt and adjust, and I think we’re a good batting team. It’s not going to happen again like that, I can’t imagine. So, they’ll adapt and go again.”