Follow UsOn April 2 (Tuesday), Royal Challengers Bangalore slipped to their third defeat of the season, and in the aftermath of the Reds’ second consecutive home defeat, their skipper Faf du Plessis rued his side’s sloppy showing on the field.
On the night, RCB put down two catches and both turned out to be costly errors. While Quinton de Kock, who was dropped on 32, went on to score 81, Nicholas Pooran, who was put down on 2, ended up giving Lucknow Super Giants the final flourish they needed, finishing with 40 off 21 balls to take the visitors to a very good total of 181.
Ultimately, the total proved to be more than enough as LSG ended up handing RCB their heaviest defeat at home since 2015.
Post the game, du Plessis admitted that his side shot themselves in the foot by not taking chances that came their way.
“The two dropped chances cost us,” du Plessis said at the presentation.
“Two very good players, QdK when he was on 25-30 and Nicky P was on 2, 60-65 extra runs, mistakes like that can cost you in the IPL.”
Du Plessis was also critical of his side’s showing with the ball in the powerplay. All pacers, including the returning Reece Topley, had a night to forget, and LSG took full toll, scoring 42 runs off the 4 overs bowled by RCB pacers with the new ball.
“I didn't think we were very good tonight with our bowling. Lots of mistakes in the powerplay. We gave some easy boundaries,” the RCB skipper said.
That RCB ended up falling 28 runs short was down to a hostile spell bowled by Mayank Yadav, who for the second game running took a three-wicket haul. With his raw pace, Mayank harassed the RCB batters, who had no answers to the rockets he was bowling.
Du Plessis said that the novelty of young Mayank made it very difficult for his batters to adjust.
“As with any new young fast bowler, it's an action you haven't faced before and he has the pace behind it,” du Plessis said of Mayank Yadav.
“His pace was great but more impressive was his ability to control length and bowl with discipline. It's pace combined with accuracy.”
LSG skipper KL Rahul, meanwhile, was pleased with his side’s performance on all three fronts.
“Overall a really good performance. the wicket was a bit tricky and there was some help for the seamers. Quinton got us off to a good start. We were 10-15 runs ahead of what we needed to be,” Rahul said.
The LSG skipper was full of praise for young Mayank, and praised the 21-year-old for being extremely professional at such a young age.
“Happy to see Mayank bowl the way he has in the last couple of games. Quietly waited for two seasons because of injury but he has been working very hard. He understands bowling 155kph is not easy,” Rahul said.
“He's really professional, has a great temperament.”
With the victory, LSG have moved into the top four. RCB, meanwhile, are ninth on the table, and have now lost two on the bounce.
Play Asli Fantasy on Cricket.com. Download the App Now.