"It’s a terrible feeling to lose three in a row", AB de Villiers made his disappointment clear after Saturday's (October 31) heavy defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) left Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) vulnerably placed in the yet undecided IPL 2020 playoffs race.
The great South African batsman, however, said there is no loss of faith on ability within his team's camp and that they back themselves to come out triumphant in the knock-out encounter versus Delhi Capitals (DC) on Monday (November 2) in Abu Dhabi.
Read Also: "Players are feeling a bit of pressure", says Kaif after DC's fourth straight loss
"We never wanted to do that (to be in a do or die position). But that’s the nature of the tournament. Anything can happen. If you lose three in a row, you can win three in a row as well," De Villiers added at the post-match press conference, as quoted by PTI.
"The game against Delhi is a big game and we all know that. We have to come out with our best cricket on the day and if we do that things are going to be good for us."
RCB could only post a total of 120/7 batting first, with Josh Philippe (32), De Villiers (24) and Washington Sundar (21) being the only ones to breach the 20-run mark against quality SRH bowling.
"The turning point was when Josh and I got out back to back," said De Villiers. "That cost us 20-30 runs, that was unfortunate. but at the end of the day, that might not have been enough in any way. The field got wet in the second innings which changed the conditions quite a bit. Maybe 140 would have been short in any way."
Sandeep Sharma (2/20), Jason Holder (2/27) bagged two wickets apiece while Rashid Khan (1/24) and T Natarajan (1/11) chipped in with a scalp each through their economical spells. It was a collective bowling performance, the kind which RCB's own couldn't replicate in the second half.
"We were initially talking about 160 which I think was a bit high," said De Villiers. "Then we thought 140 would be a good score. But credit to them. They bowled exceptionally well from the word go."
“They didn’t give us many boundary balls, their seamers particularly started well in the powerplay. They didn’t make a lot of mistakes and it didn’t get easier when Rashid Khan came who didn’t bowl any bad balls either. They put us under a lot of pressure."
"SRH bowlers stuck to the basics which was required on that pitch. They bowled on a good length and backed it up with good fielding."
"We have a balanced side and a strong batting line up. But we didn’t put enough runs on the board. The Sharjah wicket wasn’t easy. It was slow and the outfield was slow as well," he added.
Hoping to accelerate and boost their net run-rate, SRH did stutter but eventually reached home in just 14.1 overs. Wriddhiman Saha (39) continued his fine form while Manish Pandey (26) and Holder (26*) contributed too. Yuzvendra Chahal (2/19) was the pick of the RCB bowlers.
