In a season where the Royal Challengers Bangalore side looked to be perfectly balanced to be serious contenders for the IPL title, their campaign ended in rather tame defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator in Abu Dhabi.
Looking back on an evening when RCB hardly ever got going, Virat Kohli said that failing to put pressure on the opposition and maybe a mix of nerves and hesitation led to their downfall.
“Few soft dismissals, few fortunate ones for them as well and we just didn't have enough runs on the board. Maybe a bit of nerves, maybe a bit of hesitation, we need to be more expressive with the bat,” Kohli said after the match.
“If you talk about the first innings I don't think we had enough runs on the board. We made one helluva game in the second half, the positions we got ourselves into in the second half.. It is a game of margins and if Kane was taken there then it is a different ball game. Altogether they put us under a lot of pressure in the first innings.”
“We didn't have any phases in the game where we got away from the opposition. We just allowed bowlers to bowl to the areas they wanted to and didn't put enough pressure on them.”
Kohli also acknowledged that his side had lost some of the momentum they had from the first half of the tournament. The Kohli-led side lost four consecutive games en route the playoffs, which was their fifth defeat on the bounce.
“In the last 2-3 games we have hit it straight to the fielders, lot of good shots going to the fielders. It has been a strange kind of phase in the last 4-5 games.”
However for RCB, the performances of young Devdutt Padikkal have been a really positive and the captain was quick to heap praise on the youngster. Kohli and Padikkal opened the batting against Hyderabad but neither were able to find the form of previous games.
“Couple of positives for RCB and Devdutt is one of them, he stepped up nicely and getting 400+ runs is not easy. He has played with a lot of class and efficiency for the team. Very happy for him.”
“Siraj has had a good comeback. Yuzi has been solid as ever, AB has been solid as ever.
“The others contributed but just not enough. That also tells you the strength of the teams in the IPL, no team is run away favourites as such and every team has strong players, one of the other reasons is playing in only three venues and there's no home and away advantage.”
“Similar conditions for everyone and that's the reason this has been one of the competitive IPL this year. It was amazing to have had this opportunity to come out and play.”
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