Gave about 30 runs extra which did not help, admits Vyshak Vijaykumar

BENGALURU: After suffering a 21-run defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Royal Challengers Bangalore fast-bowler Vyshak Vijaykumar admitted that the hosts' had conceded 30 extra runs, which didn't help them at all.

An aggressive 56 off 29 balls from Jason Roy and a quick 48 off 21 balls from captain Nitish Rana, along with unbeaten 18 and 12 from Rinku Singh and David Wiese propelled Kolkata to reach 200/5.

Though Bangalore away 27 runs from overs 7-11, conceding just one boundary, they conceded 69 runs in the last five overs of Kolkata's innings, apart from dropping catches of skipper Nitish Rana in overs 13 and 15.

In chasing 201, Bangalore were restricted to 179/8, despite captain Virat Kohli's 54 off 37 balls and Mahipal Lomror impressing in an 18-ball 34. Leg-spinner Suyash Sharma took 2/29, before Varun Chakaravarthy and Andre Russell picked 3/27 and 2/29 respectively in breaking Kolkata's four-game losing streak in IPL 2023.

"Gutted about the performance, and I feel we probably had them till the 17th over. A couple of catches were dropped, and we gave about 30 runs extra which did not help. We started off really well with the bat in the first couple of overs but ended up losing a lot of wickets, and hence the result did not go our way," said Vyshak in the post-match press conference.

He also credited the role of fast bowler Mohammed Siraj in the powerplay and believed Wednesday's match was one of the off days for him. "Siraj is bowling really well, and the plan is to bowl it upfront and allow the ball to swing."

"It was one of those days where the ball did not swing much, and that is the reason he went for runs. We have been doing really well in the powerplay, and this was just one of those games where we couldn't get the breakthrough."

Apart from Kohli and Lomror, none of the batters stepped up to steer the chase for Bangalore, giving five wickets to spinners. "I don't know about the batting plan, but we always play bold. It does not matter who is bowling, and if it is a bad ball, then it has to be punished. A couple of balls were meant to be hit, and it was just unlucky that we hit it straight to the fielder," stated Vyshak.

Bangalore will now play five straight away matches starting with a clash against Lucknow Super Giants on May 1 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.