Delhi Capitals stunned Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a nail-biter in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Saturday, but the southern franchise doesn’t seem to be too bothered about it.
After being put into bat, the star-studded batting line-up could only manage 175, and despite starting well with the ball, towards the end of the match, they failed to contain Tristan Stubbs and David Miller and lost the contest. They lost the match in their own den — the Chinnaswamy Stadium — but their response post the defeat appears to be bordering on the defensive.
Batting coach Dinesh Karthik appeared unrattled and wasn’t willing to come up with a scathing assessment of his team’s defeat in their own backyard. As per him, they did all they could. “It was a tough pitch to bat, and we played quite well for about 75% of the innings. But yes, in the last five overs, we probably didn’t get as many runs as we wanted, but we bowled so well.
“We fielded our skin out. We did everything possible and showed the kind of commitment that players have toward the team. But towards the end, we got two great batters who came in and absolutely smashed it. And that happens in a T20 game,” he said.
RCB director of cricket Mo Bobat said something along the same lines. Talking at the post-match presser, he said, “Yeah, we probably weren’t as fluent as we normally are. Obviously, we’ve been a pretty strong batting unit so far in the games gone. I wouldn’t over-analyse that too much. We’ll review honestly like we always do.”
He added, “We’ll always consider things that we did well and things that we could improve. Ultimately, we’ve been batting very well through this competition. So, we’ll take some learning from this game, and then we’ll try and get back into our normal groove in the next one.”
Long break gives them some time to rethink!
Despite their second defeat this season, the first one coming against Rajasthan Royals a few days ago, RCB remained second on the points table behind Punjab Kings with four wins in six games.
They have a long break now. Their next match will be played on April 24, again at home against Gujarat Titans. Their fans will hope this break helps them recover from the defeat, and that when they return to the field of play, they show the same intensity they displayed in their first few matches this season.
