IPL 2023: 'Very disappointed', Faf du Plessis on RCB's season-ending defeat to GT

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) skipper Faf du Plessis on Sunday said that he was “very disappointed” after his team bowed out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) following their six-wicket defeat to Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. IPL 2023:  Full coverage |  Points table |  Schedule |  Results |  Orange Cap |  Purple Cap​ Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 101 was overshadowed by Shubman Gill’s 104 not out in a game that was delayed by almost 90 minutes due to rain. After Mumbai Indians (MI) had beaten Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) earlier on Sunday, RCB had to beat GT to qualify, but it just was not meant to be. While Du Plessis reflected on the defeat, he also credited the way Shubman played. “Very disappointed. We played a really strong team tonight, an amazing hundred from Shubman. It was really wet in the second innings. It was wet in the first innings as well, but there wasn’t a lot of grip in the second innings and also we had to change the ball quite a few times during the second innings. Virat played an unbelievable knock to give us a chance and thought that was a good score, but Shubman played incredibly well to take the game away from us,” said Du Plessis after the match. RCB’s middle-order struggled for consistency this season and Du Plessis highlighted on the issue. “We missed a few runs from the middle order consistently throughout the season, especially in the back end of the innings, and also in the middle overs perhaps didn’t get as many wickets as we would have liked,’ added the South African. “He (Kohli) played really good cricket throughout the season and as a partnership probably not a single game where we had anything under 40 as an opening combination,” added the 38-year-old. GT skipper Hardik Pandya feels his team has ticked a lot of boxes.” The calmness which the boys had was terrific. We wanted to keep the momentum going. We have ticked a lot of boxes,” said Hardik. Hardik was happy on seeing a different Shubman Gill. “He knows when he plays those cricketing shots and bats like a batter, it’s a different Shubman Gill. Today, the kind of options he picked and the kind of places where he was hitting, as a bowler he doesn’t give any chance. That makes him very special and the other batter gets confidence from him as well,” the all-rounder said. Gill, the Player of the Match, felt it was important to believe in himself. “I am in good form, it’s about getting a start and then converting it into a big one. In the first half of the IPL, I was missing out on those big ones. I was getting a lot of 40s and 50s. Thankfully, it’s all working out for me in the business end of the IPL. You need to keep playing shots in T20 cricket. You have to keep the intent and keep applying yourself, keep the belief,” said the 23-year-old. Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.