RCB coach Simon Katich admitted that the Mumbai Indians "outplayed" them, and also heaped praise on Suryakumar Yadav for his brilliant unbeaten 79 off just 43 balls.
Royal Challengers Bangalore faced a five-wicket defeat in their game against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday. Suryakumar Yadav played a brilliant innings (79* off 43 balls) to almost single-handedly steer the game away from RCB's favour.
RCB head coach Simon Katich, in the post-match press conference, said that the MI "outplayed" his side.
"We came here today to regroup. [Throughout the tournament] We've managed to bounce back after the loss but it wasn't to be today. Mumbai outplayed us," Katich said.
"The big positive were Padikkal and Phillipe who got us off to a great start. When Josh got out, it slowed down in terms of wickets.
"In the backend of the innings, we unfortunately lost four wickets in about 13 balls. From a batting point of view, we felt like we needed to get the 180-mark which could've been the competitive score. 164 wasn't enough and Mumbai deserved the result.
"We did a lot of things well to get in the position. We didn't grab our chances after the third wicket fell. We let some runs in the next couple of overs and Mumbai got back in the game."
The RCB opted to bowl Washington Sundar before Mohammed Siraj in the match today and Katich reasoned that the presence of two left-handers in the MI top-order motivated the decision.
"Today, with two left-handers at the top of the order, the skipper and we all decided to get Sundar in the game. He bowled beautifully in the powerplay," said Katich.
Katich also heaped praise on Suryakumar Yadav who held one end as wickets continued to fall on the other for MI.
"We knew we had to take early wickets. With Mumbai, you got to bowl them out because it wasn't a huge score. We felt we could defend it if we had taken wickets at the right time and tight things up in the middle," said the former Australian cricketer.
"There was a period where they were three down for 70-odd, we looked like we were getting on top, but Suryakumar played a magnificent innings and got the momentum back in their favour pretty quickly.
"He's a very good player. He has had a good tournament and today, he was the difference. He put Chahal under pressure with good boundaries and sixes. When quicks came back, they probably got little bit away from their plans."
