Royal Challengers need to bat better: Morkel

Their back against the wall after just three wins in five outings, Royal Challengers Bangalore all-rounder Albie Morkel said the star-studded team will have to sort out its batting woes to have any chance of making the IPL semifinals.

To be in the top four in points table, Bangalore have to win all the remaining six games, Morkel said.

“We need to win six games. We have struggled as a batting unit. Our batsmen score in 30s and 40s, but no one carries through and scores a 75, which is needed if you want to win games consistently,” he told reporters here.

“It is important to stay positive and switch on to compete again with world class players at their disposal,” Morkel stated.

For the team to gain confidence, Morkel said it should stay positive instead of sulking over the crushing defeat they faced last night at the hands of a rampaging Kings XI Punjab.

“We should not be sulking around with such a defeat. We have to stay positive,” he said.

Morkel further said it is in their hands to win the next six matches to qualify for semifinals.

“Losing by 30 or 50 runs is a big defeat in T20 cricket. We have to look in the mirror. It is in our own hands now. If you can win five to six in next games we will enter the semifinals and anything can happen from there,” he said.

Morkel said Punjab probably got 10 to 20 runs too many, but refuted suggestions that his team’s bowlers bowled badly while conceding 198.

“I think they probably got 10 to 20 runs too many. I don’t think we bowled badly,” he said.

“We struggled to really drag it back. Every new (Punjab) guy was looking for boundaries from ball one. It was just that type of wicket, a little slow good enough to score runs,” he explained.

The South African all-rounder also blamed it on the bad start Bangalore made while chasing a massive target of 199.

“The main thing is that if you are going to chase such a big total, (then) 50 for four -- then you are going to struggle,” he stated.

Morkel felt the back-to-back dismissal of Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli was the turning point of the match.

“Two big wickets -- Gayle and Kohli -- in two balls is massive for the fielding team,” he said.