After coping a 59-run drubbing at the hands of Delhi Capitals (DC), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batsman AB de Villiers admitted that they failed to execute their skills and were outplayed in all departments by the Shreyas Iyer-led side.
Opting to bowl first, RCB conceded 196/4 in 20 overs. Marcus Stoinis (53 not out off 26 balls) wreaked havoc on Bangalore bowlers in the death overs while Prithvi Shaw (42 off 23 balls) smashed them at the top. Rishabh Pant (37 off 25 balls) and Shikhar Dhawan (32 off 28 balls) also made valuable contributions with the bat for DC.
Chasing the target, RCB could post only 137/9 as none of the batters except for skipper Virat Kohli (43 off 39 balls) managed to touch the 20-run mark.
"196 was definitely over par. You got to give credit to them (DC); they started very well in the first 6 but we did well to pull it back. I felt we were very slow to adapt with our defensive bowling. It was one of those wickets where we needed to utilise the conditions and we gave away 20 (runs) over par," De Villiers said at the post-match press conference.
Stoinis was dropped on 30 by Yuzvendra Chahal and AB de Villiers rued the missed opportunities.
"It's a combination of a few things. First of all they batted really well, so credit to them. We had an opportunity to put pressure on them but unfortunately we just didn't execute very well. It's one of those days (when) we didn't get our skills absolutely right," he remarked.
"We dropped a catch in the field, little bit of slackness in the field as well, couple of fumbles which cost us ultimately 20-30 runs. But then again we didn't bat well at all. Just a bad day at the office I would say."
De Villiers also endorsed Kohli's decision to chase, saying they expected dew to play a big role in the second half of the match but it didn't.
"The last game Chennai won chasing. It wasn't as dewy tonight but we were expecting the ball to get wet in the second innings, which would have made things little difficult for the Delhi bowlers. "We thought dew might come and make it tricky for them to control the run-chase and that was the reason to chase," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
