The men in shining red and golden yellow of the Royal Challengers, Bangalore faded as Suresh Raina and Albie Morkel in bright mix of yellow and blue with a roaring lion manifestation struck thundering shots at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday night and took their team to a splendid win; the main sufferers were the practioners of the left arm variety; seamers Zaheer Khan and Sreenath Aravind, and spinner Daniel Vettori.
Those who were at the ‘D’ road venue at Churchgate would joyfully say ‘I was there’. RCB owners Vijay Mallya and Siddharth Mallya checked their emotions, with the game’s clichéd saying “the glorious uncertainties of the game” crossing their mind in the last three overs of an intensely-fought and highly thrilling IPL-IV qualifier play off match.
Vettori came for the press conference not with a frown, but like a seasoned campaigner who has experienced the ups and downs of the game. He did not fault anyone. “We probably were in control for most of the game, until the last five overs when we did not bowl well. When there are quality players in the middle who can clear the ball out of the ground, that makes it tough and we gave too many balls that were hit for sixes. They were able to keep catching up with the run rate, particularly, because of Raina. He played truly an amazing innings. I think it was a pretty good game, but we are disappointed to be on the losing side.
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“There were some good things in the match for us, but you have to remember the loss, hopefully we can forget that because we have an important game coming up (in Chennai). Virat (Kohli) gave us a chance of winning, playing so exceptionally well. He has been a quality player for us the whole tournament, having Chris Gayle is the reason we have got till here, but people will remember Raina’s knock because he took them to victory.”
When asked if he missed a second specialist spinner, he said: “We have done pretty well on the park with this combination, winning eight out of nine games. So I don’t think it’s the right time to question that. It would not have been easy for another left arm spinner against Raina. It was not easy for spinners there either.”
The RCB skipper felt that facing him probably was easy for the left handers. “But Zaheer and Aravind have been outstanding against left handers, as we saw earlier, how well they bowled. So I think it was just some good batting and some poor bowling in the end.”
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Vettori did not believe that the RCB was a one-man squad because of the roaring form of Gayle. “I think 175 was a good score. We’d have been happy with that at the start of the day, whether Chris got runs or not. The bowling was outstanding in the first stint of 15 overs and Chris was on fire with the ball. He did his job there, and I don’t think we will look at that way, but the way bowled in the last five overs.”
When asked if a captain can ever say if his team was in control of the match in Twenty20 match especially, until the last ball is bowled, Vettori said, “That’s Twenty20 cricket. When you play on small grounds and when there quality players like Raina, Morkel and Dhoni you have to be inch perfect, no matter whatever is the run rate. They were better than us today.”
Looking forward to the qualifier 2 match in Chennai Vettori said that his team has to focus on that match. “We have to watch the game tomorrow (Wednesday) and see who we are going to play. We have beaten Kolkata twice this season and lost to Mumbai Indians. We are feeling confident as a team and we think we can make that final. So hopefully we can play Chennai Super Kings, that will make it three out of the last four games against them.”