Kohli blasts RCB's performance against RPS

RCB crashed to a 27-run loss at the hands of Rising Pune Supergiant yesterday and Kohli has said that his side didn’t deserve to win after the way they played. Kohli blasted his team’s performance in the post-match conference saying, "If we play like this, we don't deserve to win. The last game, we fought hard. Today we let the game go away right in front of our eyes. We have a few things to address. We can't think we can sweep sides away at home."

RCB now face the uphill task of winning seven of their remaining nine games to qualify for the playoffs and Kohli has asked his side to get their act together from now on, saying, "Last year, we had to win four out of four to qualify but that can't happen every time. As professional cricketers, you're playing for a franchise, you are playing in front of a lot of people, we can't keep doing this. Hopefully, we can turn things around and the players can take the responsibility."

This is a complete turnaround from his pre-match comments, when he said, "I think we are at our best when we have to fight back against the odds and we're placed in a similar situation now and it'll take some character to bounce back and pull things up."

Vettori bemoans the balance of overseas players in the RCB squad:

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Meanwhile, head coach, Daniel Vettori is still experimenting with his team in the hope of finding the right balance, especially with regard to the overseas players.  Having lost the game against Mumbai from a winning position, last season’s runners-up replaced Chris Gayle with Shane Watson due to the Australian’s all-around abilities, while Adam Milne replaced Tymal Mills. But RCB once again lost to RPS last night and Vettori is finding it hard to get the right balance in his side.

Sony ESPN quoted Vettori as saying, "The thing is, in the IPL we're constantly searching for the right balance," Vettori said. "In the Mumbai game, we were down a bowler. Shane has been such a successful allrounder in T20 cricket for a long period of time. So we made the decision to back Shane because of his all-round contribution. It's tough for everyone in T20 cricket. A lot of domestic players have had to step in and perform after missing a few games or not being in their best form. We know Chris Gayle is a very good performer and we know if he can get on a roll than we can utilise Chris in a positive manner. At this stage, we are just trying to find the right balance."

RCB struggling to come to terms with the new Chinnaswamy pitch:

Bangalore have also found it tough to adjust to the relaid pitch at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium but the Kiwi said that it wasn’t an excuse for their poor performances. The new Chinnaswamy track makes for an even contest between bat and ball as opposed to its predecessor which heavily favored the batsmen.

"It's probably a case of dealing with a kind of wicket that we haven't played on before," he said. "It's obviously slightly slower. We are used to wickets that make it a lot easier for batsmen to hit the ball for six, hit the ball for four, to catch up with a few dot balls."

Chasing a gettable 162 against RPS last night, Bangalore did not hit a single four and managed only one 6 between the fourth and fifteenth overs, but Vettori admitted that the home side did not help themselves by not rotating the strike that subsequently added to the pressure.

Further, though RCB has always been heavily reliant on Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, and Chris Gayle, Vettori admitted that the other batsmen in the RCB side need to step up and relieve some of the pressure on the trio and that chopping and changing the lineup hasn’t helped in that regard.  

"We saw what the likes of KL (Rahul), Sachin Baby, all those roles players from last year performed. The expectation is on AB and Virat to excel, but we need the likes of Mandeep (Singh), Kedar (Jadhav), Shane (Watson) and Stuart Binny to complement their performances.”