RCB Head Coach Simon Katich Explains Reason Behind Team's IPL 2020 Exit

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) head coach Simon Katich explained the reason behind his team’s IPL 2020 exit after their loss against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the eliminator. The Virat Kohli-led side, still to win a IPL title, qualified for the playoffs for the first time in three years. But their performance was not up to the mark.

Asked to bat, only Aaron Finch and AB de Villiers made key contributions as RCB posted a partly total of 131/7 in the stipulated 20 overs. The chase was stiff from SRH as it went all the way to wire before they crossed the line with two balls to spare. After RCB was knocked out fans came down heavily on the poor run from the franchise over the years.

We felt we were on track till the 10-game mark: Simon Katich

RCB made a good start to their IPL 2020 campaign. But Katich believes that the side lost track since their 10th game of the tournament and since then it has been a downward spiral for them. He also admitted that the team might have run out of steam in the tournament probably with their 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.

“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 Chahal 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.

RCB has the record of reaching three finals. RCB entered the final match last time in 2016 but since then they have been at the bottom of the table. Moreover, in 2019, the franchise finished last with just 5 wins from 14 matches. There has been plenty of positives for the side this season which includes the brilliance of Devdutt Padikkal.