Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower wished Gujarat Titans (GT) star Mohammed Siraj all the success in the World while affirming that the franchise is "happy" with the current squad. After RCB opted to part ways with Siraj, the star seamer returned to his former home and was invaluable in forcing the hosts to surrender to their first defeat of the season.
Siraj was awarded Player of the Match for his rollicking figures of 3/19 against former franchise RCB at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
"Siraj bowled very well, didn't he? It is great for him to come here and do that. I thought he bowled an outstanding spell with the new ball. His lines were tight, and the lengths were good. He threatened the stumps a lot,' Flower said in the post-match press conference.
Siraj was unplayable right from the beginning and got early breakthroughs with Arshad Khan. The experienced speedster bowled in tandem with the uncapped quick to the game away from Bengaluru in the powerplay.
Siraj picked up Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt and Liam Livingstone's wicket that dented RCB's hopes of crossing the 200-run mark. Siraj could have extended his stay in Bengaluru in a different scenario. Flower isn't dwelling on the missed opportunity to retain Siraj. He affirmed that they are happy with their current situation.
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"We all rate Siraj very highly, and we love him. I think we had a good auction. I wish him all the success in the world. We are happy with the squad that we have got," he added.
"When they came out chasing a smaller total than what is normal in Chinnaswamy, you could see they played more carefully in powerplay and tried to keep wickets in hand. We played aggressively in the powerplay and lost four wickets in the powerplay. So that was obviously a big swing in the game. Often, if you lose in the powerplay, you are in trouble," he said.
"They were very different powerplays. I thought we scrapped very well after the powerplay. I think the toss was reasonably important. There was quite a lot of dew out there. I think the dry ball did grip off the seam, and I think that was fairly important in the context of the game. It wasn't a typical Chinnaswamy wicket, where you expect the ball to come quicker than that. GT played better than us and were sharper than us," he added.
RCB will now face arch-rivals Mumbai Indians (MI) for their fourth clash of the ongoing IPL 2025, which is scheduled to take place on April 7 at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.