Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) continued their dismal show in the ongoing IPL as they suffered a crushing seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday (April 11).
Invited to bat first, RCB posted 196/8 on the board thanks to half-centuries from Faf du Plessis (61 off 40), Rajat Patidar (50 off 26) and Dinesh Karthik (53* off 23).
Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah starred with the ball for MI, returning with a five-wicket haul (5-21) on a totally flat pitch.
In reply, the hosts overhauled the target without breaking a sweat. While Rohit Sharma (38 off 24) and Ishan Kishan (69 off 34) set the tone with an opening stand of 101 runs, Suryakumar Yadav (52 off 19) and Hardik Pandya (21* off 6) batted aggressively right from the word go to seal the deal in 15.3 overs.
After the demoralizing loss, RCB skipper Faf du Plessis lamented the dew factor while also adding that it's high time for him to win some tosses.
“It's a tough pill to swallow - combination of two things, very wet (the conditions with dew), I need to somehow win some tosses, secondly, they played really well, put the pressure on us and we made a lot of mistakes (especially during the powerplay). We knew dew would be a factor, we might have needed to make 250+, but they made 196 look very less. You know when there's dew coming, you'll have to bat big, the ball was very wet, it was changed a few times and the bowlers struggled,” Du Plessis said at the post-match interaction.
The RCB captain showered rich praise on Bumrah, who earned the Player-of-the-Match award for his match-winning spell.
“We also lost a few key moments, we were going well when myself and Patidar were out in the middle with that partnership, but they did come back well. Every time you see him with the ball in his hand (on Jasprit Bumrah), you think you'll have to put him under pressure. But he has so many skills, bowls well under pressure, he bowls with the same action and has a lot of variations. I think he has become even better under the guidance of Lasith Malinga. We would have loved if he was part of our team (smiles),” he remarked.
Du Plessis acknowledged that bowling is their weak link this season and they need to go hard with the bat to make a difference.
“We will have to find ways with the bat, get those big scores, we know our bowling is not our strongest suit, but we'll have to find ways to manage it, we'll have to be creative, go hard with the bat and make most of the first 4-5 overs with the bat,” he concluded.
Having won only one out of their six games, Royal Challengers Bengaluru are currently languishing at the ninth spot in the 10-team points table. They will next face Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday (April 15).
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
