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Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) journey in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 came to an end after they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 6 wickets in the Eliminator on Friday.
Asked to bat first, RCB only managed to put 131/7 on the scoreboard. It was always going to be tough to defend the low total, but at one stage, RCB controlled the game as their bowlers picked up early wickets and stopped the run-flow.
However, the experienced duo of Kane Williamson and Jason Holder had some other plans. The Kiwi skipper and West Indies Test captain added a match-winning 65 run stand for the fifth wicket to drive SRH into the second Qualifier, where they will face Delhi Capitals (DC) on Sunday (November 8).
During SRH’s chase, middle-order batter Manish Pandey played solid defence in the third over bowled by Mohammed Siraj. After which, RCB skipper Virat Kohli came near the pitch and tried to sledge Pandey. Kohli teased Pandey for a slow start and said, “Aaj nahi marega shot (He won’t hit any shot today)”.
But, this trick didn’t work for the 31-year-old as Pandey hit a blistering six after the gap of one delivery to give a fitting reply to Kohli.
Here is the video:
https://twitter.com/pant_fc/status/1324974956992557058
“We didn’t have enough runs on the board”: Kohli
As expected, the RCB leader talked about the terrible performance by the batting unit against SRH. Kohli also admitted that they came back in the game while defending the score but a paltry total wasn’t enough to put pressure on the opposition.
“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,” said Kohli at the post-match presentation.
“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. We didn’t have any phases in the game where we got away from the opposition,” he added.
