Calling the lack of steam in the batting department of the Royal Challengers Bangalore unit as the main reason for the team’s exit from the tournament and also for its continuous losses, coach Simon Katich said that the team lost the plot after the early brilliance.
"We felt we were on track till the 10-game mark heading into the last four blocks of games. Looking back, we think we ran out of a bit of steam probably with the bat and that's one area that faded a bit after a really good start to the tournament," Katich spoke in a virtual press conference arranged by the RCB.
The Australian further credited his opponents in Sunrisers Hyderabad for playing outstanding cricket and making RCB look clueless.
"Credit to Sunrisers, they squeezed us beautifully, and then we were always playing catch-up. We felt if we could get 150, we could be in the game with two leggies (Yuzvendra Chahal and Adam Zampa) in the team,” said Katich.
“The wicket was slow and offering a bit of turn. To stack our batting and get 130 was disappointing," he added.
Explaining why Virat Kohli opened the innings even when Aaron Finch was available and why did RCB chop and changed, Katich said, "Look, it was settled (batting line-up). Aaron Finch didn't get dropped till the 11th game,” he said.
“But then he didn't get the runs we expected. Josh Phillippe came in, got an opportunity, and going into play-offs we thought Virat will open, and unfortunately, it didn't work," Katich added.
Praising the young Devdutt Padikkal, who scored 473 runs in this season, Katich said that he was one for the future. "A great sign for the future is Devdutt Padikkal. He was magnificent at the top of the order. He played some great knocks to set us up," said Katich.
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