Rajasthan Royals captain Steve Smith's return to form with the bat on Saturday was overshadowed by a blinder of a knock from Royal Challengers Bangalore's AB de Villiers to take the game away from the Australian's team at the Dubai International Stadium.
"Sure is a hard pill to swallow. Just got AB'd there. That was a pretty special innings on a slow wicket. We played for a majority of that game so, that's two in a row we were in the box seat to win but didn't. Disappointing," he said after the match.
Chasing a target of 178, which RR set thanks to Smith's 57, RCB were chasing an increasingly steep required run rate until de Villiers turned it around in the last two overs. He finished the game unbeaten on 55 off 22 balls.
"I thought (the total) was pretty good on a slow wicket. I thought we built the pressure pretty well and it took a pretty special innings to take RCB home," said Smith.
Jaydev Unadkat, who bowled the penultimate over of the match, bore the brunt of de Villiers' assault as the South African smashed three consecutive sixes off the first three balls of the over.
"We wanted to use Jaydev to the bigger boundary, he bowls a lot of slower stuff into the wicket. Obviously the boundary was not big enough for AB. There was a thought as well to try and use Jofra but I went the other way and that didn't work," said Smith.
--IANS
rkm/bg
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor