Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) coach Mike Hesson has recently shared that he asked Devdutt Padikkal to ‘take the initiative’ during the second strategic timeout in their last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Wednesday.
Padikkal was struggling in the middle against SRH in Abu Dhabi. He scored 41 in 52 balls, amassing at a strike rate of under 80 as well. He was also involved in Glenn Maxwell’s run-out (40 off 25) after a mix-up as well.
Devdutt Padikkal painful stay at the crease ends with a 52 ball 41.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) October 6, 2021
However, Hesson revealed that he asked Padikkal to lift his strike rate after Maxwell’s dismissal. But, he was dismissed in the 17th over and they lost by four runs.
“The fact that Maxi was going so well, it was a matter of playing second fiddle a little bit and rotating the strike. And he played that role really nicely. But as we saw, it got harder to score and harder to time. A few dot balls built up. The second timeout was round about the 15th over. It was more about, ‘Dev, you need to take the initiative here and take that pressure off the new batter,” Mike Hesson said.
“He played a couple of good shots and then holed out. He wasn’t quite able to flick the switch when he wanted. But it was a tough surface and it was an important innings for us, for the other guys to play around. But yes, he wasn’t quite able to get us over the line,” he continued.
“Everything you do doesn’t come off” – Mike Hesson on promoting Dan Christian
By pushing Dan Christian to bat at 3, #RCB has pushed ABDV to No. 6. And we thought that No. 5 was a couple of spots too low anyway.
And that’s also pushed Bharat out of the position where he got most his runs and looked super-impressive. #IPL2021— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 6, 2021
On the other hand, RCB promoted all-rounder Dan Christian to No. 3 but he failed to do well. While explaining this, Mike Hesson said that they wanted to score quickly to ease the pressure on the middle-order as well. However, RCB will take on Delhi Capitals (DC) in Dubai on Friday, October 8 in their last league fixture. Hesson said:
“We felt that the powerplay was probably the easiest time to score. So we gave Dan Christian a bit of a license in the last couple of games – just to go out, try and attack and get us ahead of the game. Obviously, it hasn’t worked on either occasion.”
“Everything you do doesn’t come off. It’s something that we will look at. We are pretty clear about the roles that we want people to play. Maxi does a good job post the powerplay and AB owns the back half of the innings for us. That experience is critical and has helped us get over the line in a number of games,” Mike Hesson concluded.
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