Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) must win crucial moments if it is to turn its fortunes around in the ongoing Indian Premier League season, said their bowling coach and former India pacer, Ashish Nehra, who still reckons Virat Kohli-led side has what it takes to make a roaring comeback and win the tournament despite massive odds.
"If you keep winning small moments then only you will win matches," said Nehra at the post-match press conference in Jaipur where RCB lost against Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday (April 2). "The only problem for us is that we are running out of time as there are only 14 games."
RCB has started off this IPL season with four consecutive losses and will have to perform out of its skins to reach the playoffs from here on.
"If you win two close encounters, you will have two wins and two losses, which is fine," Nehra added. "There is not much of a difference between the top and bottom teams. In this tournament, we have seen teams needing six wins to qualify and they qualify and go on to win the tournament."
"Every week the points table changes, such is the nature of the tournament. It's a matter of winning one or two games and we will be very close."
"You need to get the basics right. We need to win close games. We had two close games out of four so far. Our first game was a turning pitch and we got all out for 70. If we had scored 100 it could have been a close game."
Batting first, RCB made just 158 runs in their allotted 20 overs despite only losing four wickets through the course of the innings. The target of 159 was then easily chased down by Rajasthan Royals, which scripted its first win of the competition. But much like skipper Kohli, Nehra also rued the chances his team let go while in the field.
"Since the last two games, we have been dropping a lot of catches," he said. "In this format, if you drop two, three catches that make a big difference, When the game was close, in Chahal's bowling we dropped a catch. Virat Kohli dropped a catch and in the end, Moeen Ali also dropped a catch. But still, it became a close game. If you don't drop the catches, things would have been different."
Perhaps RCB never really gauged the surface right and then didn't have an ideal approach with the bat. They were definitely 20 runs short, which one of their own also accepted.
"We were 10-15 short but to sum it up we didn't bat well," stressed Nehra. "While bowling also, if you take your catches because the margin of error is less and the line between win or loss is thin. You need to be on top of your game."
"Kohli and de Villiers got out together. The start we got and in between those 2-3 overs in the middle. You also have to give credit to Shreyas Gopal, he bowled well. Despite all these, we reached a total of 160," he concluded.
(Inputs from PTI)
