Twice in as many games, RCB's batting came good. And on both occasions, Royal Challengers Bangalore ceded the momentum after being on top at the halfway stage.
Against Kolkata Knight Riders, the side put up a challenging 175 on the board only to see KKR romp home with six wickets to spare. But Brendon McCullum, who bruised the visitor initially with a 28-ball 38, felt that "175 was a pretty good score, especially with so much turn and some variable bounce."
"I thought the scoreboard didn't quite reflect how well we executed our plans with the ball inside the first six overs. If we had managed to get early wickets on the back of the effort we put in with the bat, then the result could have been quite different," McCullum said after RCB's fifth defeat the season.
READ: KKR has the last laugh as struggling RCB slips to fifth defeat
While the keeper-batsman was appreciative of the "manner in which their (KKR) batters swept our spinners on a tough wicket," he was quite critical of RCB's poor fielding. Murugan Ashwin, playing his first match of the season, dropped Chris Lynn off Yuzvendra Chahal's bowling early in the innings. The missed chance proved costly as the Australian batsman shepherded the chase with a well-crafted half-century.
However, McCullum defended Umesh Yadav and Tim Southee - the latter's maiden game the year - who went wicket-less after registering economy rates of 11.37 and 8.50 respectively. "They bowled pretty well. If you look at the figures, they might tell a different story but if you look at the way we executed our plans - we created chances but just didn't make the most of them.
"It was probably the best 10 overs we have had as a group for a while. We should have backed the bowlers with our fielding," he added. The dynamic opener singled out the team's bowling coaches for special praise. "Ashish Nehra and Andrew McDonald have put in a lot of hard work into how we are going to bowl to (Sunil) Narine and (Chris) Lynn in particular.
"I thought we did it really well. It's frustrating when you create those chances and they don't go to hand. All we can do is execute the plans and hope that things work out well," he observed.
Rain made no difference
Asked if the 33-minute rain delay had any bearing on the result, McCullum said, "The ball might've skidded a little bit more but then, there was a lot of turn straight after the rain break. It didn't make a whole lot of difference to the outcome in the end.
"We seem to be involved in very good games but sooner or later, we need to be able to convert those into points on the table."
After Sunday night's drubbing, RCB has slipped to the No. 7 spot in the points table and with the team all set to hit the road running for four consecutive away fixtures. "You need to be strong about what you are trying to achieve and just keep turning up every day. No matter what people say, you have to have the belief that you can stand at the end of the competition with the trophy in your hand," he noted.
"It's always tough when you are losing a few games and you're not getting the results that you want to achieve. It'll be nice to get a win before we go on the road (RCB plays MI next at home) but once we are there, we got to do it the tough way. It's our own doing since we've not many games up front," he concluded.
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