After enduring a 7-wicket defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 25th match of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper Faf du Plessis acknowledged the need to win tosses and conceded that his team made several mistakes during the powerplay.
“It's a tough pill to swallow - combination of two things, very wet (the conditions with dew), I need to somehow win some tosses, secondly, they played really well, put the pressure on us and we made a lot of mistakes (especially during the powerplay),” said Faf at the post-match presentation.
The Protea also praised the Mumbai Indians' batters, noting that they made the target seem much smaller. Further, he said that his partnership of 82 runs off 47 balls with Rajat Patidar didn't quite go as planned.
“We knew dew would be a factor, we might have needed to make 250+, but they made 196 look very less. You know when there's dew coming, you'll have to bat big. The ball was very wet, it was changed a few times and the bowlers struggled,” he said.
“We also lost a few key moments, we were going well when myself and Patidar were out in the middle with that partnership, but they did come back well,” he added.
The RCB skipper also heaped praises on MI pacer Jasprit Bumrah and said that he possesses a lot of skills and that he has the ability to perform exceptionally well under pressure.
“Every time you see him with the ball in his hand, you think you'll have to put him under pressure. But he has so many skills, bowls well under pressure, he bowls with the same action and has a lot of variations. I think he has become even better under the guidance of Lasith Malinga. We would have loved it if he was part of our team,” said Faf.
Speaking about his team strength, the 39-year-old said, “We will have to find ways with the bat, get those big scores. We know our bowling is not our strongest suit, but we'll have to find ways to manage it, we'll have to be creative, go hard with the bat and make most of the first 4-5 overs with the bat.”
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