Kohli was lost in his thoughts. This then was to be his last match as RCB captain after nine years of leading the team. A calm washed over him as KKR reached the target. He walked past an umpire absent-mindedly before returning to shake hands, then flicked the LED bails at the non-strikers’ end.

The emotions came later. He cried as he stood with AB de Villiers at the presentation ceremony. It was no less than the end of an era. A young Kohli was roped into the first squad put together by RCB in 2008. He was the one "modern face" in a side that was ridiculed then as a “Test team”.

On Monday night, it wasn’t the power of cricket’s biggest name, but the vulnerability of leaving a job unfinished that made Kohli look every bit human as he spoke at the presentation.

“I’ve tried my best to create a culture where youngsters could come and play expressive cricket. It’s something I've tried to do in the India level as well. All I can say is that I have given my best. I have given my 120% to this franchise and will continue giving it as a player on the field,” he said.

The emphasis on his effort, as if there were any doubts, and reference to his India role in particular, suggested a certain helplessness, a nod to the fact that RCB have never won the IPL and India has not won a major ICC trophy yet under his leadership.

The one criticism that has followed Kohli as captain, regardless of the format, has been that he is too rigid, be it in terms of personnel or plans. On Monday, he ticked one important box—the captain as a gambler. Often it is crucial to have that daring. It did keep RCB in the game till the end.

KKR had stifled RCB with spin, Sunil Narine doing the most damage, but Kohli, despite the slow pitch, went with pace. Yuzvendra Chahal and Glenn Maxwell shared seven overs, giving away 41 runs for two wickets, but Shahbaz Ahmed’s slow left-arm was unused. Eoin Morgan had used 12 overs of spin, Shakib Al Hasan, Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine together conceded only 64 runs taking four vital wickets (all Narine).

But Kohli could not wrap it up in 19 overs. KKR battled back. Needing seven in the last six deliveries in T20 means the winners will invariably be the batters. Until then Kohli had been Kohli—celebratory yelling, glaring to send off batsmen, arguing with umpires twice when they fumbled even when RCB had retrieved the decisions through DRS.

But a Shakib chip for four off the first ball of the 20th over by Dan Christian, asked to do the impossible after Narine had smashed three sixes in his only previous over, seemed to puncture Kohli. The outgoing RCB captain was leaving the job without an IPL title.

FALLING SHORT

His precedessor for India, MS Dhoni, became the face of IPL by delivering four titles for Chennai. His senior Delhi teammate Gautam Gambhir adapted to a different culture while infusing his style into KKR, leading them to two crowns. That will surely hurt Kohli, feel like a gaping hole in his otherwise magnificent career.

The bio in the IPL site lists Kohli’s Orange Cap in 2016, mentions he is the highest paid in IPL, etc. One can safely add “the most important cricketer around” to that list. He didn’t seem to feel that way on Monday night. It wasn’t his home ground, Bengaluru. The Sharjah stadium held few spectators.

The tears shed showed the pressure Kohli was feeling, and the disappointment of not living up to the standards he desperately wanted to achieve as skipper. Dan Christian and his pregnant partner were abused on social media as he was seen as the villain. Kohli received thousands of sympathetic tweets but would be relieved he announced quitting as T20 captain. The pressure otherwise during the World Cup may have been unbearable.

Yet, in a sporting world where athletes increasingly struggle with stress, support to Kohli may be critical, to ease the pressure on leadership in the World Cup. On his part, maybe it is time to explore a different side of himself where he need not always be this fierce driving force. His ultra-competitiveness for now doesn’t seem to let him step off the limelight, even during a team celebration, like a Kane Williamson can.

That change could be critical in Kohli’s new chapter purely as a T20 player, for IPL or Indi