The Royal Challengers Bangalore once again failed to clear the final hurdle after losing to the Mumbai Indians in the CLT20 2011 final. RCB skipper Daniel Vettori was disappointed after the defeat but heaped praise on the way Mumbai bowled.
“We knew it was a tougher wicket than the one we had played in at Bengaluru but we still thought we had a good chance. We talked at half-time about batting out the 20 overs and making sure we were there at the end to give ourselves a chance. Unfortunately, it didn't work for us today. You can say we batted poorly at times. But we also think Mumbai bowled exceptionally well and the spell from Harbhajan [Singh] was probably the difference between the two teams.” he revealed.
Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli have been RCB’s stars throughout the tournament, but the Bengaluru-based team has failed to back the devastating trio upfront.
“Well, it's a problem, it's not a problem. Your top three win you majority of the games in T20 cricket. If you go through most teams that have been successful, it's because of their top three and that's the reason we've done so well. We've missed out on a middle-order guy who was able to step up today and throughout the tournament. Possibly, there is an over reliance on those top three but we've still got some good players in [Saurabh] Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal and Mohammad Kaif. They can all bat and at times they've done a good job but today wasn't the case.” Vettori lamented.
Having played all their matches up till the final in Bengaluru, the M. A. Chidambaram stadium posed a different challenge for the Challengers. But Vettori didn’t want to make any excuses for yet another finals defeat. he concluded.
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