KOLKATA : Following his side’s one-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper Faf Du Plessis opened up on Virat Kohli’s controversial dismissal and the turning point of the game.
Despite explosive half-centuries from Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar and an admirable final flourish from Karn Sharma, RCB fell short of just one run of beating KKR at Eden Gardens and slumped to their seventh loss in the tournament, as they failed to chase down the target of 223 runs.
A key moment in the game saw Virat, fall to a controversial on-field call for 18 in seven balls after fending off what appeared to be a beamer straight back to paceman Harshit Rana. Not amused after being given out by the on-field umpires, Virat referred the decision to the third umpire for a no ball.
However, after going over the replays, the third umpire upheld the on-field decision, giving him out. Furious at being adjudged out, Virat was seen remonstrating on the field and started walking off in anger as the Knights rejoiced.
Following the post-match presentation, Faf said that he and Virat thought that the delivery by Harshit Rana was a no-ball and above the waist. He also said that Sunil Narine’s 13th over, which saw him dismiss Cameron Green and Mahipal Lomror for low scores, was the turning point of the game. RCB was left at 155/6 at that point in 13 overs.
“It was crazy, rules are rules, Virat and I thought that the ball was higher than the waist (on Kohli’s dismissal), I guess they measured from the popping crease, one team thinks it is high, the other doesn’t. That is how the game goes at times. Then the partnership, it was magnificent (on the Jacks-Patidar partnership), but when you do not win too many games, some sort of panic sets in and the Narine over was game-changing,” said Faf.
He also said that big run chase like these do not give batters time to settle and they just have to keep going.
Plessis said that he is actually proud of the team for the way they bowled and fielded. He also expressed his side’s resolve to change his side’s fortunes and make their “unbelievable” fans happy.
“The small things, I am actually proud of the boys tonight, the way we bowled and fielded, we did give away a couple of big overs towards the end, but I thought we kept them down to a par score. We thought we will go hard in the batting powerplay, find those boundaries at the start of the innings. We were desperate, 10/10 from an effort perspective, the way we put up the effort in the ground, the faces told the story. We have got an unbelievable fanbase, we want to make them happy, we want them to have a smile on their face. We will have to continue putting in our efforts and try to change things around,” he concluded.
Coming to the match, RCB skipper Faf Du Plessis won the toss and elected to field first. Phil Salt’s explosive 48 in 14 balls, with seven fours and three sixes, providing the two-time champions with some extra runs in the powerplay. Wickets were falling from the other end continuously, but skipper Shreyas Iyer (50 in 36 balls, with seven fours and a six), Rinku Singh (24 in 16 balls, with two fours and a six), Andre Russell (27* in 20 balls, with four boundaries) and Ramandeep Singh (24* in nine balls, with two fours and two sixes) contributed just enough to take them to 222/6 in their 20 overs.
Cameron Green (2/35) was the pick of the bowlers for RCB. Yash Dayal also picked up two wickets, but leaked 56 runs. Mohammed Siraj and Lockie Ferguson took a wicket.
In the run-chase, RCB lost Virat Kohli (18) and Faf Du Plessis (7) early. A 102-run partnership between Will Jacks (55 in 32 balls, with four boundaries and five sixes) and Rajat Patidar (52 in 23 balls, with three fours and five sixes) helped RCB bounce back, however, spells from Andre Russell (3/25) and Sunil Narine (2/34) changed the match once again. Karn Sharma attempted to swing the match in RCB’s favour with three sixes in the final over, however, the team fell short by a run and skittled out for 221 in 20 overs.
Russell got the ‘Player of the Match’ for his knock of 27 and three wickets.
With this win, KKR moved up to the second spot with five wins and two losses, giving them 10 points. The RCB stays bottom of the table with a win and seven losses, aggregating just two points. (ANI)