Kolkata Knight Riders picked up their second straight win in the ongoing edition of the IPL with a 7-wicket triumph over Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.
RCB put up a total of 183/6 in 20 overs as Virat Kohli remained unbeaten at 83 runs, but the visitors KKR chased down the target with 19 deliveries to spare as Venkatesh Iyer and Sunil Naraine starred with 50 and 47 runs contributions respectively.
Following the conclusion of the game RCB skipper Faf du Plessis opened up on the two-paced wicket.
“Strange one, the first innings we thought that the wicket was two-paced, you could see that when the guys bowled the cutters, the guys really struggled,” the South African began.
“We thought it was a decent score knowing that it gets a little easier in the evening, there was a little bit of dew coming in,” he continued.
“Looking at the way we batted in the first innings, even Virat was struggling to hit the ball due to the lack of pace,” du Plessis said.
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The RCB captain expressed that KKR openers Phil Salt and Sunil Naraine, who got their side off to an electric start, put immense pressure on the hapless Bengaluru bowling unit.
“You can always say after the game, try one or two things but the way the two of them, Narine and Salt, batted, they put pressure on our bowlers,” the former Protea player said.
“They hit strong cricket shots and pretty much took the game away. With Narine there, you can’t go to spin, you want to use pace upfront. That’s also a really good match-up for Salt and the way he plays,” he expressed.
“They were excellent, and really broke the game in the first six overs,” he added.
Mayank Dagar, who picked up the wicket of Naraine, was the only spin option used by RCB and du Plessis opened up on the decision to not opt for a second spinner.
“Spinning options with Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) and finger-spinning can be effective here, but at night there wasn’t too much spin,” the South African said.
“With left-hand, right-hand combination, it’s one of those things, you can bowl a spinner,” he continued.
The RCB skipper said that the way in which his team was set up on the day made it difficult to bring in another specialist spinner who cold spin the ball both ways.
“We saw when Venky was playing, it felt like an easy hit against left-arm spin. Ideally you want someone who can spin the ball both ways but with the set-up of our team tonight, we didn’t have that option,” he added.
Vyshak Vijaykumar was the most economical bowler for RCB on the day as he conceded 23 runs in his 4 overs while also picking up the wicket of Phil Salt.
“Vyshak was very good, he hasn’t had opportunities. We had a look in the first innings and thought about bringing in Karn Sharma. But we felt someone who could bowl really good slower balls is probably the most difficult bowler to face on this pitch,” du Pessis explained.
“Andre Russell bowled 80% of his deliveries with cutters. We took some learnings from that and he was the best bowler of the evening,” he concluded.
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