Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) suffered a staggering defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). KKR easily chased down the target of 183 runs that too with 7 wickets in hand. RCB skipper Faf du Plessis was quite clueless against KKR’s batters who went berserk from the word go. Faf du Plessis perhaps missed a trick by not giving an over to Glenn Maxwell in the powerplay overs as he is someone who knows how to dupe the batters.
RCB will have to go back to the drawing board as Rajat Patidar at no.5 batting position isn’t helping the team much. The biggest positive for RCB though was once again the ex-skipper Virat Kohli who played a barnstorming knock of 83 runs in 59 balls and struck 4 fours and 4 sixes as the wicket wasn’t that batting friendly.
RCB would be considering bringing back the seasoned campaigner Tom Curran in the playing 11 as the English pacer has got a lot of variations and can deceive the batter on the given day. At the same time, he is someone who can also smash lusty blows at the back end of the innings which can change the complexion of the match.
Even Virat Kohli was struggling to hit the ball due to the lack of pace- Faf du Plessis
Faf du Plessis was seen in the post match presentation and said that they thought that the wicket was two paced and KKR’s bowlers bowled the cutters. Faf du Plessis stated that why RCB didn’t introduce spin when the dynamic right handed batter Sunil Narine was on the crease. Faf du Plessis heaped praise on the opening pair of Salt & Narine and stated that the duo were excellent.
“Strange one, the first innings we thought that the wicket was two-paced, you could see that when the guys bowled the cutters, the guys really struggled. We thought it was a decent score knowing that it gets a little easier in the evening, there was a little bit of dew coming in. Looking at the way we batted in the first innings, even Virat was struggling to hit the ball due to the lack of pace,” said Faf du Plessis.
“You can always say after the game, try one or two things but the way the two of them, Narine and Salt, batted, they put pressure on our bowlers. They hit strong cricket shots and pretty much took the game away. With Narine there, you can’t go to spin, you want to use pace upfront. That’s also a really good match-up for Salt and the way he plays. They were excellent, and really broke the game in the first six overs,” he added.
Andre Russell was the best bowler of the evening- Faf du Plessis
Faf du Plessis pointed out that there wasn’t much spin at night and said that Venkatesh Iyer hit the left arm spinner quite easily. Faf du Plessis heaped praise on KKR’s flamboyant all-rounder Andre Russell and said that 80% of his deliveries where cutters which made life harder for the bowlers.
“Spinning options with Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) and finger-spinning can be effective here, but at night there wasn’t too much spin. With left-hand, right-hand combination, it’s one of those things, you can bowl a spinner. We saw when Venky was playing, it felt like an easy hit against left-arm spin. Ideally you want someone who can spin the ball both ways but with the set-up of our team tonight, we didn’t have that option,” said Faf du Plessis.
“Vyshak was very good, he hasn’t had opportunities. We had a look in the first innings and thought about bringing in Karn Sharma. But we felt someone who could bowl really good slower balls is probably the most difficult bowler to face on this pitch. Andre Russell bowled 80% of his deliveries with cutters. We took some learnings from that and he was the best bowler of the evening,” he added.