Follow UsFor the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the equation was pretty simple: they had to win the clash against Gujarat Titans and hope for Mumbai to beat Delhi. On Thursday, RCB did one of the two, they convincingly went past the table-toppers Gujarat, beating them by eight wickets, with eight deliveries to spare.
Architect to RCB’s win was Virat Kohli, who returned to scintillating form, smashing 73 runs off 54 deliveries, a knock where he was seen pumped on several occasions. RCB’s skipper Faf du Plessis reflected on the win and insisted that his role is to enable Kohli’s emotions and let him play to that strength.
“I think tonight was important for obvious reasons. You always want to finish strongly. A few inconsistent performances have put us in this situation. I am banking on Rohit to come good,” Faf stated in the post-match presentation.”
“Throughout the season we haven't done as much as have liked. But you still need to back these big players. Virat had been putting in the hard yards in the nets. I play the role with him and get him pumped up. He has got so much emotions and hype pulls you through,” he concluded.
On the other hand, losing skipper Hardik Pandya stated that the franchise will have to be careful of not losing back-to-back wickets, something that cost them the game against Bangalore.
“We had just a par score. The ball was stopping here and there and we were happy with 168,” Hardik said before talking about the mistakes.
“We are on the right track and we just need to look after losing back to back wickets. The learning is to make sure we don't do it in the playoffs. It is always good to score runs. The way the boys are gelling and the way we are going, it is a learning for the players. I don't know about Saha's injury. He was feeling his hamstring and it was a precautionary measure to keep him off the field,” Hardik stated.