Royal Challengers Bangalore’s old habit of being atrocious at the death haunted them yet again against the Mumbai Indians in Bangalore. While defending a moderate total of 152, it was essential for the Royal Challengers bowlers to be on the money at the death. But even the experience of Shane Watson had a negligible impact on the game, as the Australian was deposited into the stands frequently by Kieron Pollard.
Due to the loss against Mumbai, the Royal Challengers now have to win all their remaining games, in order to keep their hopes alive of making it to the playoffs. Fair to say, with death bowling like this, they might find it incredibly difficult to qualify. In the post-match presentation, Virat Kohli admitted that his side would now treat each game as a knockout, and termed the situation as an “exciting” one.
“Cricket cannot guarantee performances. We gave our 120 percent but couldn’t win. It’s not a game of ifs and buts. I love this situation. You have to go out there and make things happen. We have to win all the games and it’s an exciting position to be in. Mumbai played that way last year and won it. We have the right kind of momentum to do that,” said an optimistic Kohli at the post-match presentation.
“We are literally playing knockouts now. We played really hard. We were not in the game till the 15th over. Sachin and Rahul gave us hope but too much to ask from bowlers here at Chinnaswamy. Credit to Mumbai – they bowled well, batted well. As long as my team is working hard, it’s fine. We lost early wickets. I got caught inside the ring, something that never happens. Mumbai’s spinners bowled very well, didn’t give us any room and our opposition read the pitch better,” Kohli further added about the game.
Winning skipper Rohit Sharma was glad about the win and he gave his insights about the team strategy. “Getting Kohli early was good. 150 odd was easy to chase here and we kept out nerve and came out and express ourselves. I thought the surface was dry and slow, which is why we rotated our bowlers to not let them get used to it. The idea behind containing RCB was to not allow them to get used to one bowler,” said Sharma.