Follow UsRoyal Challengers Bangalore suffered their fifth defeat in the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League after a thumping seven-wicket defeat against Delhi Capitals in the evening encounter at the Arun Jaitely Stadium on Saturday, May 6.
After opting to bat first on a sluggish wicket, Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli laid a solid foundation with an 82-run stand for the first wicket. However, they lost their skipper and Glenn Maxwell off successive deliveries to give Delhi a glimmer of hope to come back in the game.
With two senior batters back in the pavilion, the onus of the side relied heavily on Virat Kohli and Mahipal Lomror to shoulder the bulk of the responsibility of the side.
Coming in at number four, the southpaw smashed his maiden fifty to power Bangalore to a formidable first-innings total. Sharing insights on his partnership with Kohli in the post-match press conference, Lomror stated his job is to go and disrupt the opposition bowling unit.
"When I was batting with Virat, the game plan was simple. His role was to bat deep, and my job was to score a couple of boundaries in every over. When Kuldeep Yadav was bowling, it was turning a bit. It was important to put some pressure on him, so I took some risks, and it paid off."
"When we were batting, we were aiming for 170 because the wicket was spinning, and it was slow as well. We felt it was a good score. If our bowling was a bit tighter, this would have been a very good score," he added.
In 26 IPL innings, the 23-year-old managed to breach the fifty-run milestone for the first time and admitted the big runs would be difficult considering his high-risk and high-reward approach.
It is rare to get big scores in my role. My work is to go and disrupt the bowlers, and it is difficult to score big in such a high-risk approach. My work is to play impactful knocks. Personally, it feels great to get a landmark, and I have wanted it for a while.”
Lomror also believes his game is more suited for slower wickets mainly because of his wide array of backfoot strokes in his arsenal.
"I like slow wickets in general because you get a lot of balls to play off your back foot, and that is one of my strengths. I got help from the wickets because it was quite slow, and I had a lot of time to hit the ball," he concluded.
Despite his valiant effort, Bangalore were up against a Phil Salt masterclass as the England batter slammed 87 off 45 deliveries to power the Capitals home.
Delhi will now face Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday, May 10, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.