Faf du Plessis, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s captain, said their bowlers lack the strength to win games. He confessed this fact after the team’s loss to Mumbai Indians on April 11th. The seasoned South African believes batting well to score big totals gives RCB their only shot at victory.
The Royal Challengers were unable to defend 196 as the Mumbai Indians smashed the total in 15.3 overs, with 7 wickets remaining, at the Wankhede Stadium. The home team crushed the goal at a whopping 12.84 runs per over.
After the game, Faf Du Plessis made a statement. The captain said the team had to score a minimum of 220 runs. This would give their weak bowlers an opportunity. According to ESPN Cricinfo, the 39-year-old player remarked:
“At the moment, it feels like, from a batting perspective we have to get and try and push for 220 to have a chance. From a bowling perspective, we don’t have as many weapons. So unfortunately it comes down to the batters to make sure that we use our form and our confidence. The scores that we put on the board are probably going to be the only way we are going to get into the competition.”
Faf du Plessis
After Hardik Pandya put RCB into bat, half-centuries from Du Plessis, Rajat Patidar, and Dinesh Karthik powered them to a respectable score. However, only Will Jacks, Vijaykumar Vyshak, and Akash Deep took wickets.
“The dew here looked like it was going to be big” – Faf du Plessis
The former South African captain lauded the Mumbai Indians’ hitters for compelling the Royal Challengers to make mistakes via aggressive play. The former South African skipper added:
“You also have to give credit in the way that the boys from MI came out and played. Put a lot of pressure on our bowlers. Made our bowlers make a lot of mistakes in the powerplay especially. You could see that anyone who came in could find the middle of the bat quite easily. We did know that and spoke about it in the first innings. The dew here looked like it was going to be big so we felt we needed to get 215, maybe even 220.”
Faf du Plessis
Jasprit Bumrah received the Player of the Match award for his five-wicket haul.