Virat Kohli said Saturday’s defeat has virtually made their last game against Delhi Capitals a must-win. (IPL)
Skipper Virat Kohli says Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen can be more “brave with the bat” as his team earned qualification to the Indian Premier League Playoffs.
RCB slumped to their fourth defeat on the trot after losing to Delhi Capitals by six wickets on Monday but still made the cut, courtesy their net run rate.
RCB did not score much in the first half of the innings against DC and even had a quiet Powerplay.
“We have a shot, an opportunity and that’s all we want as a team. I’m sure the guys will be excited about what’s ahead for us. We can be more more brave with the bat in pockets,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“With the ball, we were decent, probably we could have a strong powerplay which is our strength. If we implement those things, we’ll be at the right end of the result. It’s important to stay positive. There are going to be learnings along the way, but we are glad that we are through.”
They lost a number of matches but Kohli said they deserved to be in top-4.
“It’s a mixed bag. As I said at the toss, you come to games to try and get the result your way. We are happy that we’ve qualified. Top two would’ve been very really nice. But I think we’ve played good enough cricket to earn a qualification spot,” said.
Kohli said they were made aware by the team management that they need to force the match beyond 17.3 overs and they did well to manage that with some superb middle overs bowling.
“Even if the game’s drifting away from you, we controlled that middle phase really well where they could have taken the game away from us.”
RCB will have to wait and watch who they face — Sunrisers Hyderabad or Kolkata Knight Riders — in the eliminator.
“You could say just before the qualification, the mindset was a little bit tentative. We’ve got two games to reach the final.”
Asked about injured pacer Navdeep Saini and all-rounder Chris Morris, who walked off the field after bowling just two overs, the skipper said the duo will have to be assessed.
“We’ll have to asses what’s happening, hopefully they’ll be fine by the time we play our next game. And see how they go in the next few days.”