Bengaluru: After crashing out of IPL 2023 through a six-wicket loss to Gujarat Titans despite making 197/5, thanks to Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 101, Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis was quick in admitting that the side consistently missed a couple of runs from the middle-order throughout their run in the tournament.
In the tournament, du Plessis, Kohli and Glenn Maxwell were highly touted as the big three for scoring a bulk of runs for the franchise and leading them to victories. With no Rajat Patidar in the batting line-up due to a heel injury which needed surgical intervention in England, the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat and Shahbaz Ahmed failed to get big runs consistently and were unable to provide the required support to top three batters.
“From a batting perspective, the top four contributed really well. Maxi (Maxwell) was unbelievable. And then Virat and myself. But we were a little bit light on the middle order, to be honest. We missed a few runs from the middle order consistently throughout the season, especially in the back end of the innings, through a bit of power-hitting,” said du Plessis after the match ended.
Karthik’s failure to get finishing kicks for the team in IPL 2023 hurt Bangalore a lot. In IPL 2022, Karthik hit 330 runs at a strike rate of 183.33 in 16 matched and helped the side get desired finishing touch. But he couldn’t replicate the same form in IPL 2023, scoring only 140 runs from 13 matches.
“Obviously, last year DK had an incredible season, probably one of the purple patches of his life and was finishing games left, right and centre. This season, it wasn’t to be and that’s the game of cricket. I thought there was a lot on his shoulders.”
“I did feel that there could be someone with him to shoulder that responsibility. And if you see the teams that succeed, they have some good hitters at probably five, six and seven,” added du Plessis.
Du Plessis signed off by saying the team was gutted to be on the losing side as Shubman Gill slammed an unbeaten 104. “Obviously very disappointing. We played against a really strong team; excellent innings by Shubman Gill. There was a lot of grip in the second innings. I thought 195-200 was a good score. We needed that wicket of Shubman and he played incredibly well to take the game away from us.”
IANS