The Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore have once again had a disappointing season as they failed to make it to the play-offs after they were handed a 30 run defeat by the Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur on Saturday evening.
Batting second on the day, RCB needed 165 runs to win, but inexplicably lost five wickets in five overs during the chase and went from 75/1 to 98/6 to gift the game on a silver platter to Rahane’s side. AB de Villiers scored yet another half-century, while Shreyas Gopal returned with figures of 4/16 in his four overs, the best for the Royals on the day.
With RCB eliminated from the playoffs skipper Virat Kohli was understandably disappointed at the performance of his bowlers and stated that the middle order too let them down consistently and will be looked at more closely next season.
Speaking after the match, a dejected Kohli said, “It was a strange one. We were in a great position. 75/1, and the way we were bundled out wasn’t ideal. Someone like AB who can hit fours and sixes was knocking it around so the others didn’t support him and apply themselves properly. We needed more smart decision-making there. These things should be repeated by 5-6 guys in a row. We wanted to strengthen the middle-order which hasn’t happened, it hasn’t been our strength and we need to do that going into the next few seasons. We need to be smarter with composing our team.”
“The responsibility cannot be taken up only by AB all the time. He certainly scored runs, but others need to contribute around him and didn’t show enough composure,” Kohli added.
Finding some positives in a disappointing season, Kohli said, “There were some new players who did well. Umesh bowled extremely well with the new ball, Chahal was great, Siraj and Moeen contributed too, so plenty of positives to take into the next season. However, after cruising at 75/1 it was disappointing that we couldn’t finish it off well. I would like to wish all the other teams the best of luck for the remainder of the competition.”
Live TV