 "Royal Challengers Bengaluru's captain Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli share a light moment during the Indian Premier League cricket match against Rajasthan Royals. AP")
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis feels his team was short by 10-15 runs as they lost by six wickets to Rajasthan Royals on Saturday in Jaipur. Batting first RCB scored 183/3 with Virat Kohli scoring 113 not out off 72 balls. Kohli took 67 balls to get to his century which is the slowest in IPL on Indian soil . RCB also struggled with form of other batters as besides Kohli and Du Plessis (44), no one made any significant contribution.
RCB only added 54 runs in the last five overs and failed to breach the 190-run mark or take the total close to 200 despite a strong start.
At the post-match presentation ceremony, Du Plessis said the wicket was “tricky” in the first innings but felt the team could have added 10-15 runs more.
“I think we found the wicket tricky in the first innings. I thought 190 was a good score, think we could have added 10-15 runs max. Their spinners bowled well (in the middle overs), good decision by them to bowl first,” he said.
“With the dew batting got easier. Virat was playing well at the back end, with someone like Green coming in, you want to maximise those last overs. We tried to squeeze as hard as we can, but it was tricky to hit against the spinners. It was easier to hit the seamers.”
Impact Shorts
More ShortsDu Plessis added that the wicket got better in the second innings with the dew also helping RR in the chase who achieved the target in 19.1 overs with Jos Buttler making 100 not out off 58 balls. The RCB captain pointed out Mayank Dagar’s 20-run over at the end of the powerplay as the turning point and also slammed his team’s fielding.
“The pitch definitely got better, you could feel it, the ball was skidding along nicely. We were excellent in the first four overs. I think that 20 runs over (from Dagar) took the momentum away and shifted the pressure back on us.
“Not bowling Maxwell was because all right-handers were batting, so went to the left-handed spinner initially. With two right-handers at the crease, went to the left arm spinner and later got the leg spinner (Himanshu Sharma) into the attack. There was no point of being defensive, we needed wickets. When we got Jaiswal out, I didn’t feel the need to go to Maxwell.
“Fielding was average, it’s something we have spoken about, we’ll work and try to improve. Not worried about catches, it’s about showing intensity on the field.”
RR captain Sanju Samson was also of the opinion that anything below 190 was good total to chase in the second innings at Jaipur.
“Anything below 190 with a little bit of dew, with the batting order we have, it was a good score to chase,” he said. “Touchwood, a few games to go, they are doing well, four days of gap, allows people to recover, rest, train and allows you to come charged up for a game. Bowling is 9 and batting is 8.7.”