Follow UsRoyal Challengers Bengaluru were up against a massive total of 231/6 set by the Sunrisers Hyderabad batters in Lucknow with the playoffs on the horizon, and they ended up losing the game by 42 runs.
After the loss RCB have 17 points in 13 games and now need to win their last game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on May 27 to have a strong chance of ending in the top two and have the benefit of having two chances to qualify for the final in Ahmedabad on June 3.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, RCB opener Phil Salt, whose swashbuckling innings of 62 off 32 balls went in vain, said that he was happy that this loss came in the group stages and not during the playoffs.
“You can take it as a disappointment, or you can take it for what it is. We've qualified, but we've lost the game,” Salt said.
“No one likes to lose games of cricket. I'm hating the fact that we lost, as will everybody else in an RCB shirt, but we'd rather have this now than in an eliminator.”
It wasn’t like RCB weren’t in the chase at any point. In fact, Salt and Kohli (43 off 25) added 80 runs for the first wicket in just 7 overs and by the 15th over, they were 167/3, needing 65 runs in the last five, which was achievable on the track. Alas, they fell short by 42 runs.
“We did a lot of good things [while] chasing it down. Obviously, we got it to a point at 15 overs where every single person in our dressing room would believe that we're going to win that game,” the English top order bat said.
“Obviously, the margins are most of the time fine, but the margins for failure were very fine tonight. You hit an over of 20 at that time and you go a long way in icing the game. Cricket can be like that sometimes. We'll have a look at what we did well and what we can do better.”
With the top two qualification race heating up, RCB have a very crucial game against LSG coming up, which will decide if they’ll play the Qualifier or the Eliminator. However, Salt wasn’t too fussed about the qualification and rather just hoped to focus on winning the game.
“I can't sit here and tell you that we prefer to finish first, second, third or fourth,” the right handed opener said.
“We've qualified for the playoffs, and once you're in the playoffs, you've got to go and play in a carefree manner and do what you can to win the trophy. We're not too far ahead of ourselves at the moment with that thinking.
“In a few days, we'll be playing here again against Lucknow in a game that we want to win and show everyone how good we are. It's pretty simple, pretty straightforward, we're just looking at the next game.”