Royal Challengers Bangalore’s AB de Villiers said that their team failed to execute their plan well, after a 59-run loss to Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday, 5 October.
RCB captain Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bowl, but his bowlers failed to check DC batsmen as they posted 196 for four wickets in 20 overs. South African speedster Kagiso Rabada, along with Man-of-the-Match Axar Patel, then effectively restricted RCB to 137 for nine wickets in 20 overs.
“I thought 196 was definitely over par. You have to give credit to them for starting well in the first six (overs). We did very well to pull it back. I felt we were very slow to adapt with our defensive bowling. It was one of those wickets were you needed to utilise the conditions, bowl it into the deck to get some purchase out of it. Unfortunately, we leaked 20 (runs) over par,” said de Villiers.
The South African cricketer also pointed out the poor fielding on the day after leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal dropped Marcus Stoinis a couple of times, and the Delhi batsman went on to score a half-century.
De Villiers said, "I think they batted well. As I said, we pulled it back nicely and we had an opportunity to put pressure on them.”
“Unfortunately, we did not execute really well. I don’t think we utilised the conditions as well as we could have.”AB de Villiers
“It was one of those days where we did not get our skills right. We dropped a catch in the field. There were slackiness in the field as well, a couple of fumbles here which ultimately cost us 20-30 runs, which could have been a different story in the second department. But we did not bat well too. So just a bad day at the office," he added.
On Virat’s decision to chase, de Villiers said, “The last game Chennai won chasing. We played against Mumbai our last game here. We got a very good total of 200-plus and Mumbai were very close to chasing that down. It wasn't as dewy tonight, I don't think it really got wet in the second innings at all, which is not an excuse. As I said before, we didn't bat well tonight and never strung together any partnerships."
“We were expecting it to get a bit wet which would have made it very difficult for the Delhi bowlers. It was a fair game, it was dry throughout the 40 overs of cricket and they were the better team today. But that was the reason why we decided to chase.”
Chahal didn’t complete his quota of four overs and finished with 0/29 in three overs. "Yuzi is a world-class bowler. He is right up there as one one of the best bowlers in the tournament. Virat had a lot of options to turn to in the bowling department. It is just about match-ups and who is bowling to what batter at certain times. Every time Virat gives the ball to someone, he feels that’s the best bowler for the situation. I don't think we need to read into it too much. It was a matter of situation out there and the conditions,” said de Villiers.
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