IPL 2018 | Virat Kohli backed the guys to go out there and back their strongest skill-set, asserts Tim Southee

Royal Challengers Bangalore's match against Mumbai Indians was particularly good for Tim Southee and Umesh Yadav as the duo helped RCB defend a paltry total of 168 against a mighty Mumbai Indians batting lineup. RCB bowlers had a contrastingly different strategy from the Mumbai bowlers, who started bowling the slower deliveries right from the start. Southee and Umesh relied on their strength and decided to swing the ball early on, which turned out to be very effective.

Having already lost three matches defending a total, Kohli would have been nervous bowling second, but his stood up this time and gave them their first win defending a total this season. Southee was adjudged man of the match for taking 2 wickets for 25 runs, which included the wickets of Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya while his partner in crime Umesh Yadav picked 2 wickets for 29 runs.  

Tim Southee stated that RCB bowlers didn’t try to do anything different and stuck to their strengths. He revealed that key to their success was assessing the wicket correctly and bowling accordingly. 

“First and foremost, we went to our strongest skill-set and that’s trying to swing the ball,” said the experienced New Zealand quick in the post-match interview.

“There was a little bit of assistance there with the swing and we were able to take those early wickets. And once it stopped swinging, we adapted to that, to the cross-seam deliveries which were holding on the surface and moving a little bit off the surface as well. We were reasonably smart as a bowling unit and we were able to assess the conditions obviously, as we got the advantage of watching our batters play on it and talking to our batters about what they found tough and the lengths and the variations.”

“The way we started with the ball. Mumbai have got a dangerous top order and we were able to not even give them a sniff and take those early wickets.”  

The last over of the RCB innings, in which Colin de Grandhomme hit Mitchell McClenaghan for 24 runs, was a big boost for their bowlers and it helped swing the momentum on their side. Southee acknowledged the importance of getting a huge last over, which helped them to get to a good total. 

“We sort of scraped through to a good score in the end, thanks to that last over. It was important. Obviously Colin had been out there for a while and he got used to the pace of the wicket and was able to capitalise in that last over when Mitch missed a few times. That did give us a big boost there to go out and bowl,” Southee added.

In the post-match presentation, Virat Kohli also revealed that he had simplified the plan for his bowlers and told them to bowl to their strengths and nothing complex that could confuse them. 

“We might have spoken about too many things in the past. This time, we told the bowlers ‘back your gut-feel, pick your fields, take ownership of the decisions you make and then if it doesn’t go right, accept it’, but to confuse them too much doesn’t help,” Kohli explained.

Southee, who gave only 10 runs in the last over, where Mumbai required 25, seemed to have grown in confidence because of the faith shown in him by Kohli. 

“It got a little bit close towards the end. But I think Virat backed the guys to go out there and back their strongest skill-set,” he said.

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