We lost track after 10th game: RCB head coach Simon Katich

Abu Dhabi, November 7

Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Simon Katich admitted that their batting unit “ran out of steam” after the 10th game which eventually led to the side’s ouster from the Indian Premier League playoffs.

RCB lost the IPL ‘Eliminator’ against Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets to bow out of the competition after a poor batting performance.

“We felt we were on track till the 10-game mark heading into the last four block of games. Looking back, we think we ran out of a bit of steam probably with the bat and that’s one area that faded a bit after a really good start to the tournament,” Katich said during the post-match press conference.

He gave due credit to Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers who restricted them to a below-par score.

“Credit to Sunrisers, they squeezed us beautifully and then we were always playing catch-up. We felt if we could get 150, we could be in the game with two leggies (Yuzvendra Cgahal and Adam Zampa) in the team. The wicket was slow and offering a bit of turn. To stack our batting and get 130 was disappointing,” the former Australian Test star didn’t mince words.

Skipper Virat Kohli opened the innings in the Eliminator and Katich was asked whether tinkering too much with the combination brought about his team’s downfall.

“Look it was settled,” the head coach said.

“Aaron Finch didn’t get dropped till the 11th game. In terms of settled combination, we did do that for first 10 games and unfortunately Finchy didn’t get the runs we expected. Josh Phillippe came in, got an opportunity and going into play-offs we thought Virat will open and unfortunately, it didn’t work. We didn’t chop and change too much like in the past and the only changes were forced one due to form,” he said in defence.

He did praise young Devdutt Padikkal, who got nearly 500 runs in his first IPL season.

“A great sign for the future is Devdutt Padikkal. He was magnificent at the top of the order. It is a tough job for young man in his first season. He played some great knocks to set us up. With the ball, Washington Sundar did a great job for us. (Mohammed) Siraj showed some good signs with the new ball at the back-end. Hopefully, they will all get better during the next season,” he said.

Katich, however, made it clear that the middle and lower-order would need to contribute more under pressure.

“Coming and trying to get those boundaries, score 10 runs an over. We have given some guys opportunity to see what they can do and hopefully, we will continue to do that in future.” PTI

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