Dropped catches hurt us, could have restricted them to 150: Axar Patel

Bengaluru: A dejected stand-in skipper Axar Patel blamed below-par fielding effort from his men for not being able to restrict RCB to 150 and thus practically blowing away chances of qualifying for the IPL play-offs after being handed a 47-run thrashing in their penultimate league game.

While RCB are also on 12 points, a superior NRR of +0.387 compared to DC’s dismal -0.482 still keeps them in the hunt if they happen to win their last game and also have a few results going their way.

“Dropped catches hurt us. We could have restricted them to 150. Also when you lose four wickets in powerplay, you are always chasing the game. 160-170 would have been a par score as the pitch was two-paced. Some were skidding, some were holding,” Axar said after the match.

There were two run-outs — first a freak one off team’s most impactful batter Jake Fraser-McGurk and the other off Tristan Stubbs which cost DC dearly.

“When your main players are run out and you lose four in powerplay, you’re chasing the game,” said the all-rounder, who for all practical purposes know that his team has little chance of making it to top four.

“Anything can happen, but haven’t thought that far ahead.” A delighted Faf du Plessis spoke about how the team found its mojo in the second half of the tournament having won five back-to-back matches.

“It was brilliant. We have put up a great performance. It’s just confidence. First half of the season, we were just fighting for it. First five or six games, we couldn’t get wickets, now three times or so we have bowled opposition out,” a beaming Du Plessis said after the match.

RCB have been bowling out opposition fairly regularly and the skipper attributes it to the different types of bowlers present in his armoury.

“I feel there is a lot of variety in bowling as a skipper, six-seven options, you asses the conditions and see what you can do. Yash (Dayal) has been exceptional. Lockie (Ferguson) has been brilliant.

“Both [batting and bowling] needs to have a full crack. We want to be bold. Even today, we played swing up front and bounce upfront, we had 60-odd in powerplay, guys are pushing.”