Royal Challengers Bangalore is fast “running out of time” and needs to win the “small moments” to reverse its fortunes in the ongoing Indian Premier League, feels the team’s bowling coach Ashish Nehra.
RCB lost by seven wickets to Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday night, slipping to its fourth consecutive loss in the tournament. The Virat Kohli-led side is yet to open its account and has just 10 games in hand to turn things around in the tournament.
Match Report| Rajasthan beats Bangalore by seven wickets, Kohli's team stays winless
“If you keep winning small moments then only you will win matches. The only problem for us is that we are running out of time as there are only 14 games,” Nehra said.
The former India left-arm pacer, however, said the team will find its mojo if it wins a few close encounters.
“If you win two close encounters, you will have two wins and two losses, which is fine. There is not much of a difference between the top and bottom teams. In this tournament, we have seen teams needing six wins to qualify and they qualify and go on to win the tournament,” Nehra said.
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“Every week the points table changes, such is the nature of the tournament. It’s a matter of winning one or two games and we will be very close.
“You need to get the basics right. We need to win close games. We had two close games out of four so far. Our first game was a turning pitch and we got all out for 70. If we had scored 100 it could have been a close game,” he added.
Sent into bat on Tuesday, RCB made 158 for 4 on a difficult wicket, a target which the host chased down with one ball to spare, losing just three wickets in the process.
RCB also dropped a number of catches, including that of Rajasthan skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith. Nehra admitted that the fielding gaffes cost them dearly.
“Since the last two games, we have been dropping a lot of catches. In this format, if you drop two, three catches that makes a big difference,” he said.
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“When the game was close, in Chahal’s bowling we dropped a catch. Virat Kohli dropped a catch and in the end, Moeen Ali also dropped a catch. But still, it became a close game. If we hadn't dropped the catches, things would have been different.”
Talking about RCB’s batting effort, Nehra said, in the end, the team was 10-15 runs short of a winning score.
“This wicket was not a 200-run wicket. But Kohli and de Villiers got out in quick succession. The start we got and in between those 2-3 overs in the middle. You also have to give credit to Shreyas Gopal, he bowled well. Despite all these, we reached a total of 160,” he said.
“We were 10-15 short but to sum it up we didn’t bat well. While bowling also, if you take your catches because the margin of error is less and the line between win or loss is thin. You need to be on top of your game.”
Nehra also admitted that RCB has not fulfilled its potential so far.
“For now, we are not playing to our potential and we will have to play better whether it’s batting or bowling,” he said.
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