AB de Villiers, a former batsman for South Africa and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, has noted that during the team’s match against the Lucknow Super Giants, commentators repeatedly said that RCB’s bowling was under pressure. He added that they were very critical without recognizing that it was a belter of a wicket.
On his program ABD 360, de Villiers said that if the track had been as difficult as the pundits had suggested during the first innings, Rishabh Pant would not have scored 118 off 61 deliveries.
Bengaluru gave up a staggering 227 runs, and they needed to defeat Lucknow to secure a top-two finish for the first time in nine years.
“To be honest, I was furious after listening to the pundits last night. When we were bowling, they were very negative. “RCB’s bowling is under pressure,” they said again. Speaking on his YouTube channel, De Villiers said, “It doesn’t seem like they’re going to manage it.”
“How about taking into account the notion that it was a great batting surface, all you extremely astute and perceptive critics out there? They continued by talking about how the RCB bowling squad was once again playing poorly, De Villiers said.
I thought as I watched the game: commentators may get obsessed with a story. It’s lazy to keep repeating, “Here we go again,” even though RCB has never won a championship. Without really examining what is taking place on the pitch, De Villiers said, “The bowlers are ffailing;they are useless.”
While everything was going on, Bengaluru defeated Lucknow by six wickets thanks to an outstanding unbroken 85 from stand-in skipper Jitesh Sharma, who overcame Pant’s outstanding 118 to guarantee the team’s spot in the IPL Qualifier 1.
On Thursday, Bengaluru will play the Punjab Kings in Qualifier 1 at Mullanpur. Similar to Punjab, they finished second on the table with 19 points, although their net run rate was lower.
Bengaluru got off to a fast start, chasing an overwhelming 228. Phil Salt (30, 19b) and Virat Kohli (54, 30b, 10×4) contributed 61 runs during the powerplay before Jitesh (85) and Mayank Agarwal (41) sent them home.
