Half-centuries from Glenn Maxwell (78) and AB de Villiers (76*) helped the Royal Challengers Bangalore beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by 38 runs at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. Today was the last game of the Chennai leg for the boys in Purple and Gold, and despite the result not going in KKR's favour, Head Coach Brendon McCullum was optimistic about the team's chances of doing well.
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"We have shown enough in this tournament that says we have a good chance if we can just tidy up some of the areas. If we do that, I am very confident that we will bounce back in the next couple of games," McCullum said.
After being asked to bowl first, the Knights were well and truly in control after twin scalps from Varun Chakravarthy in the second over of the innings. However, the mystery spinner did not bowl another over inside the powerplay. Explaining his decision, McCullum said "Yeah, look, I think in hindsight if we had our time again, we probably would have bowled Varun Chakravarthy in the first hour and next over when Maxwell did come out. But look, we were also trying to save Varun's overs for AB de Villiers."
"I think, in retrospect, we probably should have bowled that over. There were many other aspects in the game which we could just tidy up that could give us a much better chance against a team that was clearly very confident, he further added.
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The international stars in Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers were destructive from the word 'go', making it difficult for the bowlers to control their line and length and execute the plans.
Reflecting on the game plan the team had, McCullum said, "From our point of view, it was about just trying to execute. It was about trying to ensure that we took the RCB batters to the bigger boundaries.
"There was quite a sizeable boundary on one side of the ground and a short boundary on the other. We had the plans in place and unfortunately we missed (them) whether that is because of the presence of AB de Villiers at the crease or we weren't good enough on the day. But our plans were sound, and we just did not execute them."
The former KKR opening batsman credited Maxwell for his performance, saying, "He is clearly confident at the moment; he took the game away from us at a crunch stage today when we were on top. If we had our time again, I am sure we would have tried a few different things, but that's what some of these world-class players do."
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While the bowling unit struggled all through the day, McCullum stressed on the availability of Sunil Narine, their leading wicket-taker against RCB, and also shared the reason behind Shakib Al Hasan featuring in today's game.
"Look, Sunil Narine had a bit of an injury before the first game where he wasn't a 100 per cent fit. So, he absolutely comes into our calculations, and he was touch and go for today's game.
"We opted for Shakib, who has been very, very good for us, and he also gives us that extra bit of batting. I think, after three games, the guys have played well but we have not got the results necessarily, he said.
