RCB’s batting ran out of steam in second half of tournament:coach Katich

Kane Williamson smashed his 14th IPL half-century while Jason Holder played a cautious knock as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) kept their finals hope alive after defeating RCB by six-wicket in the Eliminator

Abu Dhabi: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) head coach Simon Katich feels that the batting department has let them down in the second half of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).

Kane Williamson smashed his 14th IPL half-century while Jason Holder played a cautious knock as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) kept their finals hope alive after defeating RCB by six-wicket in the Eliminator here at Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday.

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This was RCB’s fifth straight loss after an excellent start to their season.

The head coach Katich felt that the batting ‘ran out of steam’ after the strong start to the showpiece event.

“We felt like we were on track at the 10-games mark, and then heading into the last four games… looking back on it now, it feels like we probably ran out of a bit steam,” said Katich at the post-match presentation.

“Particularly with the bat. That’s probably the one area that faded a bit after a really good start to the tournament. Credit to the Sunrisers today, I thought they squeezed us beautifully. They took early wickets and then we were always under pressure trying to play catch up,” he added.

RCB failed to rise to the challenge in the Eliminator clash against SRH as Jason Holder and T Natarajan starred with the ball to restrict the Virat Kohli-led side to 131/7.

“We always felt if we can get 150 on the board we would be in the game, particularly with the two leggies (Yuzvendra Chahal and Adam Zampa) in the team and seeing the wicket,” said Katich

“It was slow and offering a little bit of turn. To stack our batting today and only get 130 was disappointing. Sunrisers thoroughly deserved to go through,” he added.

Despite starting the season on a good note and finishing fourth in the points table, RCB had to end their campaign in Eliminator as SRH set up a virtual semi-final with the Delhi Capitals on Sunday.