Royal Challengers Bangalore’s flexible batting lineup didn’t worked out for them.
Dec 22, 2018 at 5:18 PM
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians match’s top scorer KL Rahul said that, the pitch at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bangalore, benefitted Mumbai Indians as the pitch had eased out in the second half. Mumbai Indians keep their hopes of a play-off’s alive on Wednesday night by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets with a late assault from Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler.
KL Rahul said: “Having lost Virat and Chris early, we had to change the batting strategy. The wicket was a bit slower on the side and it was not easy to go there and start hitting straight away. We discussed in the middle to stick on and build a partnership, and may be after 10 overs decide on a target. Unfortunately, AB (de Villiers) got out, but we were happy to have posted 150 odd runs. Obviously, in the second half, the wicket became a little bit easy for batting”.
Rahul said as Kohli and Gayle were dismissed early, he played the role of an opener when he walked out to bat.
He also said that, Moreover, the team had prioritized flexible batting line-up, which eventually did not click due to the bad start.
“That was the plan, and that’s what we discussed in the team meeting, to be flexible. Unfortunately, we lost Chris and Virat early, and it wasn’t in any way a good start for the team, but I played the role of an opener when I went in to bat early on,” Rahul said.
When he was asked about Gayle, who is going through the bad form at the moment, Rahul replied, “In this game, we decided on Chris to open the innings as he is a dangerous batsman, and we all know that. If he fires he can get us 250 runs on any wicket and any ground. But that doesn’t happen as always.”