IPL 2020 | RCB expected dew to come into play but it didn't, admits AB de Villiers

Virat Kohli's RCB entered the game against Delhi Capitals high on confidence as they were coming off back-to-back wins against Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals respectively but they were handed a reality check by Shreyas Iyer's men, who dominated Bangalore and handed them a 59-run defeat. Virat Kohli's decision to bat first in Dubai was quite surprising given it was a used wicket and it was only going to get slower as the match progressed. 

But his RCB teammate AB de Villiers has come out in his skipper's defence as he asserted the team was expecting dew to come into play. Ultimately, it didn't as RCB ended their innings with just 137, chasing a steep 197, which was way beyond par. 

“The last game Chennai won chasing. It wasn’t as dewy tonight but we were expecting the ball to get wet in the second innings which would have made things little difficult for the Delhi bowlers. We thought dew might come and make it tricky for them to control the run chase and that was reason to chase,” AB de Villiers stated post the Delhi encounter.

De Villiers, who got out to his compatriot Anrich Nortje for nine, further said that RCB did well to pull back things after a poor powerplay but admitted they were too slow to adapt. The 36-year-old also talked about RCB's sloppy fielding, which again came to play against DC as Chahal dropped an easy chance of the man-in-form Marcus Stoinis. 

“196 was definitely over par. You got to give credit to them (DC), they started very well in the first 6 but we did well to pull it back. I felt we were very slow to adapt with, our defensive bowling. It was one of those wickets where we needed to utilise the conditions and we gave away 20 over par.

“It’s a combination of a few things. First of all they batted really well, so credit to them. We had an opportunity to put pressure on them but unfortunately we just didn’t execute very well. Its one of those days we didn’t get our skills absolutely right. 

“We dropped a catch in the field, little bit of slackness in the field as well, couple of fumbles which cost us ultimately 20-30 runs. But then again we didn’t bat well at all. Just a bad day at the office I would say,” the South African star said.

After five games, RCB have won three while they have lost two. The two games they lost against KXIP and DC were absolutely one-sided while barring the win against RR, all their wins have come after a close brush with defeat.