RCB vs SRH: What Experts said as Sunrisers expose chinks in Bangalore's armour

The Sunrisers Hyderabad outclassed the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a vital clash on Saturday’s night to keep their campaign alive with 12 points from 13 games. On the other hand, RCB have some tough questions to answer and now they will have to get a favourable result in the game against Delhi Capitals to see ‘Q’ written beside them on the points table.

Here we have compiled the expert opinions and captains’ view of the match where the RCB were no match to the class on display by the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Captains’ views

The losing captain Virat Kohli pointed out the unexpected changes in the game conditions behind the failure of the team. He said that although the team had lowered their expectation and par total on the pitch, the team did fail to achieve that objective too. "It was never enough. We thought 140 might be a good total to get into the game, but things changed drastically, which we didn't predict. It is strange. We thought the weather became pleasant, and there won't be much dew,” Kohli said to the host broadcaster Star in the post-match interaction.

He criticised batsmen for not showing enough courage to take the team to a good position but did not run away from commending the opposition bowlers for bowling in right areas and making their life difficult. “I thought we were not brave enough with the bat throughout the innings. To be fair to them, they bowled in the right areas and used the pitch,” Kohli added.

Kohli showed his outlook as the captain of the side which has lost its way in the last few matches and felt the heat of not qualifying (yet) even after strong performances and said that his men faced a simple equation of winning the last game and seeing the team in the top two.

On the other hand, David Warner was all praise for his team which is showing the right attitude when facing the situation of needing to win all and against top teams of the tournament. He expressed disappointment at the loss of Vijay Shankar due to injury but showed satisfaction over finding a suitable combination to come up strong after the setback. "Coming here, needing to win against top teams, needing to win all to qualify. It is big. Losing Vijay is a big miss. For us, we worked out how to go about it. The right balance, right partnerships,” Warner said in the post-match presentation.

Warner credited his bowlers for the success and said that the pitch was slowing quite a lot. He suggested that the bowlers have a job of adaptation and they can’t rely on a certain type of balls to get the better of batsmen. “All the credit today goes to the bowlers. The kind of wicket it is, it is slowing up quite a bit. The bowlers have to adapt. Can't just be yorkers, can't just be slowers. You have to hit the wicket. I was not surprised at all with the dew. When it is cooler here, it gets quite dewy,” Warner added.

Jason Holder has brought a new dimension into the Sunrisers lineup and Warner did not miss the chance to heap praise on him. “Jason is a very very good (hitter of the) cricket ball. Someone of his height, if you are trying to bowl a bouncer to him, you have to dig it is quite short. And it will sit up for him in these pitches,” Warner said of Jason Holder who finished the night against the RCB with a figure of 27/2 from four overs.

Warner was optimistic of Sunrisers winning the IPL this year and he drew reference to the 2016 edition when again the team had to win all their last three games to make it to the big stage of the league. “Same do-or-die in the next game. Yeah, we can still win the IPL. We had to win all three in 2016. We are winning these close ones. Of course, we lost that close one the other night; don't even remind me of it,” Warner echoed the mood in the Sunrisers’ camp.

Experts’ views

Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle had made his prediction clear about the match when the RCB were restricted to a mere 120 runs. He also talked about the dip in form the two teams such as RCB and DC have been dealing with as other teams are stepping up their games to ask some soul searching questions from them.

He also lauded Jason Holder for putting a brilliant performance while he also liked the prospect of the playoffs in the IPL with teams still fighting against each other to secure their places on the top four positions of the points table.

Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra lauded the Sunrisers Hyderabad for turning up with brilliant performances one after the other even without the services of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Chopra also predicted that if the men in orange go on to win their next fixture against the Mumbai Indians on October 3, they may very well secure a berth in the playoffs of the IPL this year.

Veteran journalist Ayaz Memon pointed to the overreliance on the Virat Kohli-AB de Villiers behind the RCB’s defeat against the Sunrisers. He compared the RCB to the Delhi Capitals with no alternative plans in their hands. He suggested that the RCB too, like the DC have gone off the boil.

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