Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Faf du Plessis admitted that his team is lacking confidence to close out games in the ongoing Indian Premier League as they have managed a solitary win in eight games. RCB suffered their seventh loss of the ongoing season as they lost against Kolkata Knight Riders by one run at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Sunday.
KKR posted a par score of 222 runs on the board but RCB fell short in the end. Phil Salt gave a blistering start to his team, smashing 48 runs off just 14 balls. Shreyas Iyer got the crucial runs for his team as he scored 50 runs off 36 balls.
Ramandeep Singh added the finishing touches as he smashed a fine cameo of 9-ball 24. On the other hand, RCB’s batting innings kicked off on a controversial note as Virat Kohli was given out on a waist-high full toss from Harshit Rana. Kohli and Faf were not happy with the decision but it was noticed that the former was batting outside of the popping crease and as it was a slower ball, the trajectory was dipping.
Faf du Plessis said in the post-match presentation, “It was crazy, rules are rules, Virat and myself thought that the ball was higher than the waist (on Kohli’s dismissal), I guess they measured from the popping crease, one team thinks it’s high, the other doesn’t. That’s how the game goes at times.”
Subsequently, Will Jacks scored 55 runs off 32 balls whereas Rajat Patidar scored a quickfire 52 off 23 balls. However, both the right-handers were dismissed in the same over by Andre Russell.
As RCB was chasing a huge score of 223, the South African felt they had to keep going hard at the bowlers despite losing wickets. Sunil Narine also dismissed Mahipal Lomror and Cameron Green in the 13th over and Faf added it was a game-changing moment.
Faf added, “Then the partnership, it was magnificent (on the Jacks-Patidar partnership), but when you don’t win too many games, some sort of panic sets in and the Narine over was game-changing. You don’t feel that you have time to settle down and bat (on the evolution of the IPL this season), the game doesn’t allow it to do that, obviously, you have an extra batter, but in chases like these, you have to keep going. The match-up against Narine, I thought that was the game-changing over.”
Faf added he was proud of the effort his players put in despite the loss. Karn Sharma gave a glimmer of hope to RCB as he smashed Mitchell Starc for three sixes in the final over when 21 runs were needed. However, Lockie Ferguson was run out on the last ball as RCB could not take the game into the Super Ove.
RCB will next take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Thursday.
