Royal Challengers Bangalore trying to find right balance, says Daniel Vettori

Royal Challengers Bangalore are languishing at the bottom of the 2017 Indian Premier League after their 27-run loss to Rising Pune Supergiant and coach Daniel Vettori has said the team is trying to find the right balance.

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s woes in the 2017 Indian Premier League continued as they slumped to the bottom of the table after losing by 27 runs to Rising Pune Supergiant. (IPL 2017 full coverage)

Shane Watson replaced Chris Gayle for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the game against Rising Pune Supergiant but he flopped with both bat and ball. (BCCI)

Before the match, the RCB team raised a few eyebrows when Chris Gayle, who needed just three runs to complete 10,000 runs in Twenty20s, was dropped yet again for this encounter to be replaced with Shane Watson. Speaking in the post-match press conference, RCB coach Daniel Vettori said the team needed an extra bowler.

“After the Mumbai Indians game, we thought we had a bowler short and Watson gives us the opportunity as he is a proven performer with both bat and ball. He has been a wonderful Twenty20 allrounder and we decided to back Watson for his all-round skills,” Vettori said. The move did not work out as Watson conceded 44 runs in his four overs and was bowled by Ben Stokes for 14.

Vettori admitted that RCB’s bowlers gave away too many runs in the last couple of overs and he said this was the difference in the outcome. “We bowled tightly in the first 18 overs but went away with the plan in the last two overs which cost us 30 runs. It was 15 runs too many and that put us under immense pressure,” Vettori said.

Rising Pune Supergiant had struggled to 132/7 in 18 overs but Watson conceded 19 runs in the 19th over and Milne gave away 10 runs in the final over as Manoj Tiwary slammed 27 off 11 balls.

The nature of the Chinnaswamy wicket in the 2017 edition has also been a talking point. In past editions, the pitches aided the batsmen but in this edition, they have been sluggish. Vettori, though, said it made for entertaining cricket.

“The Chinnaswamy wicket has not been a bad one for T20s. It has been exciting for the bowlers. All the matches here have been entertaining. It is different and we need to adapt. We have not been able to mirror the performance we had against Delhi Daredevils,” Vettori said.

Royal Challengers Bangalore now travel to Rajkot where they will take on Gujarat Lions, who have also lost three out of four games.