RCB captain Faf du Plessis admitted that the confidence in the group has been down in the ongoing season following a string of defeats. However, RCB were condemned to their sixth loss last night in seven games, this time against Sunrisers Hyderabad who posted the highest total in IPL history.
“Crazy the amount of runs that were scored today,” Faf du Plessis told the broadcasters after the game. “Credit to us for hanging in there and trying to get closer towards the end. We tried a few things behind closed doors. It’s a sign of confidence in the group and in the bowling department. The game of cricket is tough when your confidence is down, there is nowhere to hide in the game. When you are not on top of your game it is difficult and you got nowhere to hide. Obviously with five bowlers even tough on a wicket like that. I think we will have to keep trying different things, maybe bring in a bit of leg spin to try and get some wickets in the middle overs.”
Despite the loss, du Plessis was happy with the efforts of the batting department. They did give a tough fight at the start of the chase with du Plessis and Virat Kohli got off to a stunning start in the powerplay. Later on, Dinesh Karthik played an swashbuckling innings as RCB finished with 262/7 as well.
“We have gone pretty well in the powerplay but there has been a bit of a drop after the powerplay and that’s something we want to get better as a batting unit, make sure the rate doesn’t go down and keep going up because that’s just the way the game has evolved with the scores the teams putting up,” he again added. “From that aspect really proud to see the boys put up their hands tonight with the bat and never gave up. You see often in today’s cricket where one team has a big score like that, a lot of times the team will fall away like a deck of cards. So it was good to see there was a bit of fight in us but at the end, just about 30-40 runs from a bowling perspective was too much.”
Following another defeat, Faf du Plessis also opined on the need for the entire group to focus away from the game for a while to get back in the zone. However, RCB will play their next game only on Sunday.
“You need to go away and freshen your mind,” he said. “This is such a mental game, sometimes when we have back-to-back defeats like these it does feel like your mind is going to explode. So important to get away from it and make sure when you do get back to your next challenge, you show full commitment, 100% fight, you can’t be floating around 70% the way the game is being played at the moment.”
On the other hand, Travis Head made headlines with the bat as he smashed a century. He and Abhishek Sharma have played a stunning innings in the powerplay and gave SRH a blazing start as Head got himself to a fifty inside the powerplay before scoring his century off just 39 balls as well.
“We definitely got a lot of power through our middle order. Abhi and I at the top of the order try to maximise it as much as we can. Tonight we hit a lot of sixes but ya we want to try and attack the powerplay, the two of us. Whether you are chasing 180, 190 or 280 you know what’s set out,” he said. “There is always going to be pressure on the powerplay. I thought we drew it back really well to 5 for 125 and DK played an unbelievable innings which then got it close again. We knew we probably needed 3 or 4 really good overs to make sure we won the game. It’s amazing to sit here and think of it when you make 280 but I think you got to be prepared for ‘one of those nights’ for the bowlers. I thought Pat bowled exceptionally well, the wickets through the middle overs set the game up.”
“Each guy has had their moments throughout the tournament whether it’s Abhi, Klaasen, Nitish and myself today. That impact player probably mirrors what international cricket is. The small time I’ve been back in international T20 cricket where for Australia you got Matthew Wade at 7 and power-hitters at 7/8. You just keep going because you know how much power you got through so that impact player means the batting goes longer, means you can take your risks,” he concluded.
