IPL 2018: Frustrating When You Create Chances And They Don't Go To Hand: Brendon McCullum
Updated - 30 Apr 2018, 12:38 PM
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s season is fast turning into a familiar campaign. The perennial underachievers of the league have rarely managed to deliver on the expected lines. And the ongoing season is also heading into a similar direction after they suffered their fifth defeat on Sunday. Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed them by six wickets to deal a huge blow to their slim playoff hopes.
Virat Kohli led from the front but his effort was overshadowed by Chris Lynn’s unbeaten fifty. Put in to bat first, Royal Challengers were off to a solid star. Openers Brendon McCullum and Quinton de Kock added 67 runs for the first wicket. However, after McCullum’s departure in tenth over, Kohli had to wage a lone battle till the last ball of the innings.
And Kohli led from the front once again. He remained unbeaten, scoring 68 off 44 to ensure his side finish with a competitive total of 175/4.
But in the end it did not turn out to be a winning total. Lynn starred for the visitors, scoring a gritty 52-ball 62 and remained unbeaten to help his team cross the line in the last over. He received good support from Sunil Narine (27), Robin Uthappa (36) and Dinesh Karthik (23).
The 175-run score would have been handful on a tough M Chinnaswamy track where ball was turning miles. However, poor show on the field did not help the hosts’ cause. The Royal Challengers came out with a plan against Knight Riders’ hard-hitting openers Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine. Instead of starting with spinners, Kohli handed the responsibility to Tim Southee and Umesh Yadav to contain Narine and Lynn. The plan worked to a certain extent.
Narine, who had scored 139 off 54 balls against Bangalore prior to Sunday’s game, was hurried by Southee in the very first over. Narine’s mishits, however, was falling in no-man’s land, much to the frustration of the hosts. In the fourth over, the Royal Challengers had the chance to take the command. However, M Ashwin dropped a regulation catch when Lynn was batting on just 7.
When the powerplay ended, the Knight Riders were on their way to chase down the total. The scoreboard was reading 51 for no loss at the end of six overs. The visitors then made sure to capitalise on the fine start and went on to win the game.
Speaking after the game, McCullum insisted that the team had done its plans on Narine and Lynn before expressing his disappointment over the plans not paying off.
“Those guys [Lynn and Narine] have played really well against us in the past, and we put in a lot of effort today. I think they [Nehra and McDonald] put in a lot of hard work into how we’re going to bowl at Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn in particular. It is frustrating when you create chances and they don’t go to hand,” said McCullum.
The former New Zealand skipper further focused on how his team did well in the initial overs without getting much reward.
“I thought the way we bowled in the first six overs, the scoreboard probably didn’t reflect how well we executed our plans, and that can happen sometimes when they’ve got guy who like to free their arms. If we had got early wickets on the back of efforts we put, I think the result would’ve been a lot different,” he said.
“If you look at the way we executed our plans – where we wanted the ball to be bowled, we actually bowled there. We created chances, we didn’t just execute those chances. I thought overall the bowling was good. This was actually the best 10 overs we’ve had as a group for a while. I think we had our chances in the field and we didn’t take those. Don’t want to be too harsh on the bowlers. We should’ve backed them up with our fielding,” he added.
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Brendon McCullum Indian Premier League