RCB skipper Faf du Plessis admits he’ll sleep better as team register a win after six losses, beating SRH by 35 runs; hopes they can carry momentum ahead in must-win situation
RCB skipper Faf du Plessis (centre) celebrates a SRH wicket with pacer Mohd Siraj in Hyderabad on Thursday. Pic/AFP
Skipper Faf du Plessis won the toss and the match swung in the hard-pressed Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) way, while the law of averages caught up with hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday.
RCB, who recorded their second win of the season from nine matches, beat SRH by 35 runs to end the hosts’ winning streak. The Pat Cummins-led side have five wins and three losses and are third on the points table. When the two sides met previously in Bangalore, SRH broke their own record to score 288-3.
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This time though RCB avenged that defeat in emphatic fashion with Rajat Patidar winning the Player of the Match award for his aggressive 50 off 20 balls.
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Close encounters
The win came as a massive relief for the bottom-placed RCB and Du Plessis said his team have been showing signs of a fightback since the last two games. “We’ve been close for a while, but you need to win matches to get confidence as a group. Only thing that gives confidence is performances. We’ll sleep better tonight,” said Du Plessis, who was happy to see his batters scoring runs. “More guys are scoring runs now. In the first half of the tournament only Virat [Kohli] was scoring runs.
Greeny [Cameron Green] scoring runs now will be massive for him,” said the South African, admitting frustration at losing matches on their home ground—the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. “It’s a difficult ground to bowl on. We have tried to find a recipe for it, but it’s tough.”
Meanwhile, SRH coach Daniel Vettori admitted that his team faltered. The trio of Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen, who were ruthless in the previous four matches, endured a rare failure. Head was out in the first over, Abhishek in the fourth and Klaasen in the fifth.
SRH’s Vettori rues tough loss
Vettori felt 206 was a good score, but backed his players because of their past performances. “We also know it’s been set up by the openers, and today [Thursday], they had an off day, and that’s cricket, you have off days. We don’t expect them to perform in 14 games and unfortunately, we didn’t get the support in the middle stages.
It’s a tough loss, but we understand that every team in the IPL can beat every team. There are no easy games at all,” said the New Zealander after his team managed just 171-8, chasing 207 for victory.
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