A five-match losing streak, including defeat in the Eliminator to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Friday (November 6), ended Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) hopes of an elusive IPL trophy and head coach Simon Katich rued the disappointing batting performances that his team exhibited in the second half.
On a surface playing true in Abu Dhabi, RCB managed just 131/7 versus SRH with AB de Villiers (56) fighting a lone battle in the middle-order while the rest failed. In response, though SRH stuttered and things did get tight, they were able to reach the 132-run target at the end with six wickets intact.
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The likes of Mohammed Siraj (2/28), Adam Zampa (1/12) and Yuzvendra Chahal (1/24) made life difficult for opposition batters in the second half but there were never enough runs on the board.
"We felt we were on track till the 10-game mark heading into the last four block of games. Looking back, we think we ran out of a bit of steam probably with the bat and that's one area that faded a bit after a really good start to the tournament," Katich said during the post-match press conference, as quoted by PTI.
"Credit to Sunrisers, they squeezed us beautifully and then we were always playing catch-up. We felt if we could get 150, we could be in the game with two leggies (Yuzvendra Chahal and Adam Zampa) in the team. The wicket was slow and offering a bit of turn. To stack our batting and get 130 was disappointing," he added.
As skipper Virat Kohli (6) promoted himself at the top of the order in hope to resolve the opening issues for RCB, Katich was asked whether frequent tinkering with that spot hurt his team.
"Look, it was settled," he said. "Aaron Finch didn't get dropped till the 11th game. In terms of settled combination, we did do that for first 10 games and unfortunately Finchy didn't get the runs we expected."
"Josh Phillippe came in, got an opportunity and going into play-offs we thought Virat will open and unfortunately, it didn't work. We didn't chop and change too much like in the past and the only changes were forced one due to form."
At least at the other end, RCB seemed to have found a horse for the long haul in young Devdutt Padikkal, who scored nearly 500 runs in his very first IPL season aged 20.
"A great sign for the future is Devdutt Padikkal. He was magnificent at the top of the order. It is a tough job for young man in his first season," said Katich.
"He played some great knocks to set us up. With the ball, Washington Sundar did a great job for us. (Mohammed) Siraj showed some good signs with the new ball at the back-end. Hopefully, they will all get better during the next season."
Even though disappointed with the end outcome, RCB would still be pleased to have entered the playoffs. After a season where they did quite a few things right, Katich feels it's a matter of now their middle order putting up more consistent performances and they'll be up for their maiden trophy next year.
"Coming and trying to get those boundaries, score 10 runs an over. We have given some guys opportunity to see what they can do and hopefully, we will continue to do that in future," he signed off.
