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Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper Faf du Plessis opted to bat first hoping to set a big total on the board but Mustafizur Rahman on his Chennai Super Kings (CSK) debut wreaked havoc and got the big wickets to push the visitors on the back foot. After a six-wicket loss, Du Plessis felt that RCB were ’15-20 runs short’ against a destructive CSK batting lineup.
“Always when you play, you get a bit of dip after the six overs. Chennai are a very good team in the middle overs, they squeeze you with their spinners. Maybe we were about 15-20 runs short, the pitch wasn’t as bad as we played in the first 10 overs,” Du Plessis said in the post-match presentation.
The former South Africa batter justified his decision to bat first. He felt that CSK took the game away from RCB early on in the run chase.
“They were always ahead in the chase, we tried to squeeze and get a couple of wickets, but in the end we didn’t have enough runs. On this pitch, it is always better to bat first. Last year, the record was very skewed towards teams that batted first. The ball started to grip a bit with our spinners,” he said.
Du Plessis lauds Karthik
The opener was attacking in the powerplay overs scoring 35 runs from 23 balls. He lost his wicket to Mustafizur and Rachin Ravindra took an excellent catch.
The 39-year-old lauded Dinesh Karthik and Anuj Rawat as their 95-run partnership for the sixth wicket helped RCB post 173/6, a score which looked unlikely after the visitors lost half the side in the 12th over.
“Really good for Dinesh to set up his season, especially for someone who hasn’t played a lot of cricket. Anuj has shown some great promise for us, he showed great composure for a young guy and great power through the backend,” he said.
After a loss in the season opener, RCB will now head back to Bengaluru where they will go up against Shikhar Dhawan-led Punjab Kings on March 25.
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