AB De Villiers, batting mainstay of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) felt that it’s terrible to lose three matches in a row after their road to the playoff has become a bit more difficult after they tasted defeat at the hands of SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Saturday 31st October, 2020.
RCB lost against Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad in consecutive matches but still stayed at the 2nd position after 13 matches with 14 points from 7 wins and 6 defeats. They next meet 3rd placed Delhi Capitals who have the same points but are behind RCB due to Net Run Rate.
AB De Villiers: Terrible To Lose Three Matches On The Trot
Batting first, RCB managed only 120/7 in stipulated 20 overs with Josh Philippe top-scoring with 32, and AB De Villiers scored 24. But all of the batsmen’s strike rate was below 120 which hampered them to score a big total. Gurkeerat Singh scored unbeaten on 15 but played 24 balls as both Sandeep Sharma and Jason Holder took two wickets apiece. T Natarajan conceded only 11 runs in 4 overs as all of the bowlers were economical.
Chasing 121 to win, Wriddhiman Saha and Jason Holder of SunRisers Hyderabad played knocks of 39 and 26 respectively as SRH defeated RCB at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium within the 15th over. Manish Pandey too scored 26, but both skippers Virat Kohli and David Warner failed with the bat contributing single-digit scores.
“It’s a terrible feeling to lose three in a row, you never want to do that. But that’s the nature of this tournament, anything can happen: if you lose three in a row, you can win three in a row as well and that will be our thinking looking forward,” said AB de Villiers in the post-match press conference.
RCB have now lost three matches in a row, which have opened up many possibilities for the top four to enter playoffs and the battle to qualify has become more intense with 6 teams still in the race. Mumbai Indians are the only team to qualify while Chennai are the only team to be eliminated.
AB De Villiers: Sharjah Wicket And Outfield Were Very Slow
AB De Villiers feels that Sharjah’s wicket was slow, which eventually put pressure on the batsman.
“The Sharjah wicket was very slow, the outfield was slow as well so punching through covers didn’t go for four, it went for one or two. That also put a lot of pressure,” said the right-handed batsman.
“I thought they were quite boring out there which was what was required on this wicket. There was enough in the wicket to do the basics well, they hit the top of the wicket with the odd cutter on a good length. They backed that up with very good fielding,” he added.
With this win, SRH have now climbed to the fourth spot in the points table with 12 points from 13 matches. On the other hand, RCB holds their second place with 14 points from 13 matches.
“The Delhi game is a big game we all know that. We’re going to have to come out with our best cricket on the day. If we do, things will look up very well for us,” De Villiers said.
RCB will now face Delhi Capitals in their last league game at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Monday, November 2.