RCB captain hints at changes: Virat Kohli was vocal about RCB’s fourth straight loss and hinted at changes for the next match.
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During the 14th match of the ongoing 12th season of the Indian Premier League between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore at Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 7 wickets to register their first IPL 2019 victory.
Having tasted defeat for the fourth consecutive time, RCB are now the only team to remain undefeated in the tournament so far.
Chasing a 159-run target, the hosts registered victory in the penultimate over of the match. Wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler, who opened the batting with captain Ajinkya Rahane, top-scored for his team scoring 59 (43) with the help of eight fours and a six. With bowling figures of 4-0-17-2, RCB leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was their pick of the bowlers.
After Rahane won the toss an put the visitors in to bat, Royals restricted them to 158-4 in 20 overs. Scoring his 12th IPL half-century, wicket-keeper batsmen Parthiv Patel scored a praiseworthy 67 (41) with the help of nine fours and a six. Shreyas Gopal (4-1-12-3) was the highest wicket-taker for Rajasthan.
“The team hasn’t gone off to a good start”
Speaking during the post-match presentation, Royal Challengers captain Virat Kohli admitted that his team was 15-20 runs short in the first innings. “Today, we were more competitive, but we were 15-20 short with the bat. I thought 160 was competitive, but with the dew factor, 15 runs more would’ve been more challenging,” Kohli was quoted as saying.
In the four matches that RCB have played so far, they have never sent the same opening combination in two matches. While this shows about the uncertainty in their mindset, RCB fans can expect more of such changes happening going into the tournament.
“The team hasn’t gone off to a good start, and these things look really bad. But we have to keep believing that we can turn things around. Thought we played well in Mumbai and tonight, but we need to improve. We need to take some confidence from tonight’s game though.
“The tournament isn’t so long, so you need to think on your feet on what the best XIs are. We will sit down and talk to see how we can balance our team and allow our players to create some match-winning performances,” Kohli added.
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