Royal Challengers Bengaluru will not make a mountain out of a molehill after their loss against Delhi Capitals. RCB, playing at home, failed with the bat on April 18, scoring just 175 runs against Axar Patel’s Delhi. Considering Chinnaswamy’s lofty standards, they were far short of the par total, but managed to stretch the game to the final over on Saturday.
Despite restricting Delhi well for the majority of the game, the total proved too small as David Miller and Tristan Stubbs pulled off the chase with one ball remaining. RCB director of cricket Mo Bobat reacted to their first loss at home, stating that the team was not going to overanalyse the game.
“Yeah, we probably weren’t as fluent as we normally are. Obviously, we’ve been a pretty strong batting unit so far in the games gone. I wouldn’t over-analyse that too much. We’ll review honestly like we always do,” Bobat said in the post-match press conference.
“We’ll always consider things that we did well and things that we could improve. Ultimately, we’ve been batting very well through this competition. So, we’ll take some learning from this game and then we’ll try and get back into our normal groove in the next one,” he added.
| RCB vs DC: Scorecard | Highlights |
The RCB innings started well when Phil Salt took on Auqib Nabi inside the powerplay. RCB were 99/2 by the 10-over mark, but were not able to capitalise on it due to some good execution from the Delhi bowling unit.
In the second half of the innings, Lungi Ngidi, Mukesh Kumar, and Kuldeep Yadav put up a terrific display, restricting the home side to just 175 runs for the loss of 8 wickets.
Bobat admitted that RCB batters were not able to negate a tacky Chinnaswamy pitch and ended up scoring a few runs short. RCB captain Rajat Patidar was of the same view in the post-match interview as well, where he said that the team probably left out 15-20 runs on Saturday.
“Yeah, that was really close, but I feel that we were 15-20 runs short. The way we started initially, especially VK bhai and Salt, I think they gave a good start, but from there after, I think in 12 or 13 overs, we lost wickets in a couple of overs and that put us on the backseat. I think in the first innings, that was a bit tacky, I would say,” Patidar said.
“But I think the way we stretched in the last over, I think that’s a positive sign for us. But I think I was just discussing with the bowlers that they need to be clear whatever they do. I think it’s a long tournament, but we will go back and introspect where we made the errors and we’ll rectify them,” he added.
RCB FIGHT BACK vs DC
Despite scoring a below-par total, RCB bowlers fought back, especially Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who conceded just 26 runs from his four overs, in return for 3 wickets.
RCB bowled out Bhuvi and Josh Hazlewood, looking to choke out Delhi, but were left with only part-timer Romario Shepherd to bowl the final over. Romario had 15 runs to defend and gave away only 2 singles in his first two balls, sending alarms into the Delhi Capitals dugout.
However, he was not able to sustain it and was whacked for two sixes and a four in the next three balls, sealing RCB’s fate in the game.
Bobat reacted to the move, stating that RCB had no choice left and that the risk did not come off on the day.
“There comes a point in the game where you feel like you’re behind in the game. So, to get yourself back in that game or maybe even get ahead of the game, you have to use your champion bowlers. So we felt that we had to bowl both Hazlewood and Bhuvi when we did to make it as difficult as possible later in the game,” the director of cricket said.
“Obviously, that involves a bit of a risk. It’s a tough ask for Romario bowling that last over to two international batters and two international finishers. So it was always going to be a tough ask. But we had to take the game as deep as possible,” Bobat concluded.
RCB will now take nearly a week-long break and then play Gujarat Titans at home on April 24.
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