Vettori: 'The bowling has been exceptional'

Even as Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered another batting collapse in its defeat to Rising Pune Supergiant, coach Daniel Vettori was pleased with his bowling unit.

Royal Challengers Bangalore coach Daniel Vettori felt his team's bowling this season has improved.

Daniel Vettori was happy with Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) bowling unit even as the team slumped to a 61-run defeat against Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) on Saturday.

He felt a few players under-performed in the ongoing season. The loss to RPS at the MCA stadium, following a batting collapse, was his team’s seventh so far in 10 appearances.  “We still have four games left. It will be important for the pride of the franchisee (to keep improving)," said RCB's coach, “We have not had the time to assess the campaign.”

The New Zealander appreciated the bowlers' role against RPS stroke-makers, especially keeping Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Manoj Tiwari tied down in the slog overs.

“The bowling performance has been exceptional. It has been a real improvement from where we were last year. I thought the way we fought back, particularly with Adam Milne and Sreenath Aravind in the death, was fantastic, so has been (Pawan) Negi. There’s been some really bright spots in our performance.”

Commenting on the batting flops this season, he explained: “Last season we had a different batting line up. With K. L. Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan (both injured), we had a number of other guys who under-performed which we didn’t expect. We expect the likes of Stuart Binny and Negi to be complementary pieces (batting) so that they can finish off the innings. So, they still need to do a lot more.”

To a query about the team management's approach to putting the side back on track, Vettori said: “You try and do a lot of things in the background. The last two years when we started off poorly, we were able to rectify it. Unfortunately, we have not been able to do it this time. It is about building confidence within the group. It has been hard for the guys to take control of the game. We haven’t had that belief to allow us build the confidence.”

“We just try to get the guys confidence, allow them to play in the manner which we expect. We talked to the guys to just go out there and play the kind of game you can, irrespective of the score or stage of the game. Probably, some of the wickets we played on made tricky for the guys. They were difficult wickets to bat on, but that’s no excuse as both teams had exactly the same wicket.”