Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opener Devdutt Padikkal said the way RCB got the start on Friday (September 24), they should have posted a target of around 170-180 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) after his team suffered a six-wicket loss in their IPL 2021 contest in Sharjah.
Padikkal further said that the RCB batters tried to play to the merit of the ball, but it didn’t work out against CSK, as they were hoping that the wicket was getting a little tougher in the second innings, but the collective efforts from batters helped Chennai chase down the target of 157 with six wickets in hand on Friday.
RCB posted 156 on the back of Virat Kohli’s 53 and Padikkal’s 70 and their opening stand of 111 runs against CSK in Sharjah. Padikkal hopes RCB make that right in the next game against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday (September 26).
However, RCB remains at third place in the IPL 14 points table with 10 points from 9 games despite back-to-back defeats in the second leg of the tournament in the UAE.
Padikkal said during a virtual post-match press conference: “Yeah, definitely. There are always some things we can improve on. At that stage, we were looking to take the game deep, we felt that the wicket was getting a little tougher and we knew it would not be easy for someone new coming into bat. So, yeah that was what we were looking to do and trying to take our chances whenever we can.”
He signed off by saying, “Obviously when you have a start like that you would like to get 170-180 at least. We really did not set a target like that, we were trying to play to the merit of the ball, unfortunately, and it did not work out against CSK. But hopefully, we can make that right in the next game.”
(With ANI Inputs)
