“Virat Kohli Was Struggling”: RCB Captain Faf Du Plessis’ Pitch Talk After Loss To KKR In IPL 2024 Match

Following his facet’s loss in opposition to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) of their Indian Premier League (IPL) match, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper Faf Du Plessis stated that the wicket was two-paced within the first innings, inflicting gamers to wrestle a bit with their batting. With a scintillating batting show, the Kolkata Knight Riders turned the primary crew to win away from residence on this IPL following their complete seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Friday on the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Speaking on the post-match presentation, Faf stated, “In the first innings, we thought that the wicket was very two-paced, you could see that when the guys bowled the cutters, back of a length, the guys really struggled. We thought it was a decent score knowing that it gets a little bit easier in the evening, there was a little bit of dew that came in. Looking at the way we batted in the first inning, even if you have someone in there, Virat was struggling to hit the ball just because there was a lack of pace and the surface was two-paced.”

On whether or not the crew may have completed various things in powerplay with the ball, the skipper stated, “You can always know after the game, we can say perhaps try one or two things but the way the two of them (Sunil Narine and Phil Salt) were striking the ball, some really good batting there, they put pressure on our bowlers. They hit strong cricket shots, and pretty much took the game away. With Narine there, you cannot go to spin, you want to use pace upfront. That is also a really good match-up for Salt and the way he plays. They were excellent, and really broke the game in the first six overs.”

Faf stated that the crew tried to have spin choices with all-rounder Glenn Maxwell however there was not a lot spin in the course of the sport on the floor.

“We have tried the spinning options with Maxi, the finger spinners seem to be effective here, but at night there was not too much spin,” he stated.

Talking about medium pacer Vijaykumar Vyshak, Faf stated that he bowled properly, however has not had many alternatives for RCB.

“We had a look in the first inning and we thought about bringing in Karn Sharma (the spinner). But we felt someone who could bowl really good slower balls was probably the most difficult bowler to face on this pitch. Dre Russ probably bowled 80 per cent of his balls as cutters. We took some lessons from that and he was the best bowler of the evening,” he concluded.

After KKR gained the toss, they opted to subject. After shedding skipper Faf early, Virat Kohli had a 65-run partnership with Cameron Green (33 in 21 balls, with 4 boundaries and two sixes) and a 42-run stand with Glenn Maxwell (28 in 19 balls, with three fours and a six). Virat scored 83 not out in 59 balls, with 4 boundaries and 4 sixes and took RCB to 182/6 together with Dinesh Karthik (20* in eight balls, with three sixes) of their 20 overs.

Andre Russell (2/29) and Harshit Rana (2/39) have been the choose of the bowlers for KKR.

In the run chase, Phil Salt (30 in 20 balls, with two fours and two sixes) and Sunil Narine (47 in 22 balls, with two fours and 5 sixes) put KKR to a high quality begin with a quickfire 86-run stand in 39 balls. After Vyshak and Mayank Dagar (1/23 every) dismissed the openers, Venkatesh Iyer (50* in 30 balls, with three fours and 4 sixes) and skipper Shreyas Iyer (39 in 24 balls, with two fours and two sixes) guided KKR to a seven-wicket win with 19 balls to go.

Sunil gained ‘Player of the Match’ on his five hundredth match for his knock of 47 and one wicket.

RCB is sixth within the factors desk with a win and two losses. They have simply two factors. KKR is at second with two wins in two video games and 4 factors.

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