That is one game where I feel like it hurts: Virat Kohli on the 2016 IPL final

Virat Kohli has been an icon of the sport in any league or tournament that he has starred in so far. Spanning from the Indian blues to the RCB reds, he has sprinkled stardust to every corner of the planet. However, even heroes have moments that don't go their way. 2016 was the year of reckoning for Virat Kohli in the IPL. He almost single-handedly ushered RCB to the final.

Much to the Challengers’ dismay, they couldn’t cross the finishing line as they were beaten by Sunrisers Hyderabad in a thrilling contest. Despite a desperate lunge from the Challengers, they fell short at the end, where the captain and his entire contingency was absolutely gutted.

Speaking on the RCB podcast, Kohli opened up about the heart-wrenching memories that the former Indian and RCB captain bears to date. He quoted, “That game, I felt like it was written. How could the finals be in Bangalore, and we played that kind of season, and we play that kind of a game where we are 100 for no loss in nine overs. Even KL, to this day, if there's a highlight package running, he takes a screenshot and says it still hurts. It does. You had these dejected faces sitting in that amazing victory setup that we had done for the post-victory celebration. There was no music and we had such a big setup. I wouldn't say it was our day. That is one game where I feel like it hurts.”

He further added, “It disappoints me. We had opportunities where we came close. At the end of the day, I am not going to call it luck. The opposition is there to play as well and if they are better on the day, you have to accept it that we haven't been as courageous or as clear in our plans as we should have been in those crunch moments. You could say that the odds were stacked against us - the only expectation was for us to win - but you have to deal with those. You can't run away from that.”

Kohli continued, “That season was unbelievable. That was so amazing in a way that you have four guys performing at their peak game in, game out - which is so rare to see in T20 cricket. We just got on a roll where we were like fine, if we are not doing well in the season, we could still make it. The belief never went away which is really difficult to create. That happened very, very naturally that season. KL also agrees that his career graph changed after that."