Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer Josh Hazlewood said an atypical Chinnaswamy pitch and the batsmen’s inability to put learnings from previous matches into practice contributed to his team’s third straight defeat at home. The Royal Challengers succumbed to Punjab Kings by five wickets in a 14-over-a-team match on Friday night after losing against Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals here earlier. “Yeah, I think it’s not a typical Chinnaswamy wicket. Obviously the bounce has always been there, but it’s in past years, it’s probably been more consistent,” said Hazlewood in the post-match press conference.
It may be recalled that RCB mentor Dinesh Karthik too was not satisfied with the 22-yard strip on offer here and wanted to have a talk with the local curator after their defeat against the Capitals.
Hazlewood said the lack of a strong power play segment added to RCB’s woes.
“Yeah, it’s obviously three (defeats) in a row now at home. It’s just we’ve probably been a bit slow on the learnings from the first two games and didn’t put that into practice as well as we could have, probably in those first probably six to eight overs, obviously, with the score the way it was,” he added.
However, the New South Welshman was confident in his team’s ability to buck the frustrating trend at the earliest.
“But we’ll dive into this game and, you know, probably more so when we get back to Bangalore and really go through in detail and with a fine tooth comb and come up with a few ideas of where we can learn and improve.
“I think the bowling definitely improved from the last two outings. So sort of we’re slowly getting there, but probably not quick enough,” he said.
Hazlewood had a word of advice to his colleagues in the batting front — step back for a moment and try to assess the conditions before going for big shots.
“So, maybe, it might be a case of pulling back a touch and giving yourself a little bit of time. I know in the first two games we lost here it was a batter on the other team going big and getting a partnership and scoring big late in the game.
“So if we can have our top five, top six doing the batting for the 20 overs, I think that’ll go a long way to helping us win,” he explained.
Nehal batted very well: Brar
Punjab Kings spinner Harpreet Brar paid handsome compliments to middle-order batter Nehal Wadhera for managing a small chase with composure.
Wadhera’s unbeaten 33 off 19 balls tilted the balance of the game decisively in favour of PBKS in the chase of 96 after the tourists were at a slightly tricky 53 for four.
“Nehal is a very good player. He has been playing in the IPL for the last 2-3 years. He does well domestically as well. Recently, when we won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he played very well in the knockouts. As a senior, I feel very proud,” said Brar.
Brar himself had a good game taking the wickets of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal in successive balls in the 12th over.
Brar, who was playing the first match of the season, said he was ready to bowl in the end stages of the RCB innings.
“In small matches, you have to be on your toes. You can get an over anytime. I was ready. It was my first game of the season. I didn’t know that I would bowl in the last over,” he added.
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