Faf du Plessis slams his own RCB bowlers after another humiliation in IPL 2024
Published - 12 Apr 2024, 10:56 AM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:10 AM
Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Faf du Plessis thinks that RCB bowlers, led by Mohammed Siraj are not doing enough to help the team win games.
Faf du Plessis, who scored his first half-century of IPL 2024 last night at the Wankhede stadium, now thinks that the team's strategy should be to enhance their batting and instead of posting a target of 180-190, they must aim to secure a total of 220-230. The South African was extremely dejected when saying that during the post-match presentation.
Faf du Plessis bashed his bowlers for the performance they have been putting up in the season, especially last night against the Mumbai Indians.
After losing the toss and batting first, RCB got off to a crumbling start as Orange Cap holder Virat Kohli was dismissed early on for just 3 runs by his India teammate Jasprit Bumrah.
Then Will Jacks, who was playing his first game of the season, scored a couple of boundaries but got out by playing a bad shot off Akash Madhwal for 8 runs.
Then out of form batter Rajat Patidar, who was pushed at number 4, steadied RCB's ship along with Faf du Plessis. The duo batted aggressively at 150+ strike rates respectively and took RCB from 23 to 105 before Patidar went back after a 26-ball 50 off Gerald Coetzee.
Disappointment continued for Glenn Maxwell, who departed for another duck, while Mahipal Lomror also went off with a golden duck.
Dinesh Karthik and Faf du Plessis then dragged RCB from 108 to 153 but the latter was sent back by a raging Jasprit Bumrah, who eventually finished with figures of 5/21.
In the end, it was DK who took RCB to a 190+ total through his death over a blistering knock of 53 off just 23 at a 200+ strike rate.
Faf du Plessis says RCB's unit is their "Last Hope"
In response, MI chased down the total by the 16th over, thanks to the knocks from Ishan Kishan (69 off 34), Rohit Sharma (38 off 24), Suryakumar Yadav (52 off 19), Hardik Pandya (21 off 6) and Tilak Varma (16 off 10).
From RCB's bowling unit, every single bowler conceded at least 10 runs an over and did not do enough to pick wickets at regular intervals.
While speaking at the post-match presentation, Faf du Plessis was extremely critical about the lack of lethality in their bowling attack and indicated that the batting unit is their Last hope.
The South African claimed that he and other batsmen should now try to aim for a 200+ target since 180s and 190s are proving to be not enough for their bowlers.
"At the moment, it feels like, from a batting perspective we have to get and try and push for 220 to have a chance. From a bowling perspective, we don't have as many weapons. So unfortunately it comes down to the batters to make sure that we use our form and our confidence. The scores that we put on the board are probably going to be the only way we are going to get into the competition." - du Plessis said after the match.
du Plessis emphasizes RCB bowlers finding a creative way to claim wickets in powerplay
Faf du Plessis further claimed that RCB bowlers need to find a creative way to penetrate batting orders at the start of the innings, especially in the powerplay overs. "From a bowling perspective, we have lacked a little bit of penetration [at the start] so we have to go out and find creative ways within our squad we can get a team two or three-down in the powerplay." - du Plessis concluded.
