RCB captain Faf du Plessis acknowledged that their bowling attack lacks the necessary firepower to secure victories, following their loss to Mumbai Indians on April 11. Du Plessis, an experienced player from South Africa, believes that their best shot at winning is by putting up competitive totals with the bat.
Despite posting 196 runs, RCB couldn’t defend it as Mumbai Indians chased down the target in just 15.3 overs, with 7 wickets in hand, at a remarkable run rate of 12.84 runs per over at the Wankhede Stadium. In his post-match remarks, Du Plessis emphasized that their bowlers need a target of at least 220 runs to have a fighting chance. As reported by ESPN Cricinfo, the 39-year-old remarked:
“At the moment, it feels like, from a batting perspective we have to get and try and push for 220 to have a chance. From a bowling perspective, we don’t have as many weapons. So unfortunately it comes down to the batters to make sure that we use our form and our confidence. The scores that we put on the board are probably going to be the only way we are going to get into the competition.”
Following Hardik Pandya’s decision to field first, impressive performances from Du Plessis, Rajat Patidar, and Dinesh Karthik helped RCB post a substantial score with their half-centuries. However, only Will Jacks, Vijaykumar Vyshak, and Akash Deep managed to take wickets for their team.
“The moisture on the field seemed like it would have a significant impact”- Faf du Plessis
The former captain of South Africa commended the Mumbai Indians batsmen for pressuring the Royal Challengers into making errors through their aggressive gameplay. The former South African skipper further remarked:
“You also have to give credit in the way that the boys from MI came out and played. Put a lot of pressure on our bowlers. Made our bowlers make a lot of mistakes in the powerplay especially. You could see that anyone who came in could find the middle of the bat quite easily. We did know that and spoke about it in the first innings. The dew here looked like it was going to be big so we felt we needed to get 215, maybe even 220.”
Jasprit Bumrah won the Player of the Match prize for taking five wickets.
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