Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Anil Kumble held his batting colleagues responsible for the team's crushing seven-wicket defeat against Victoria Bushrangers, saying they just did not give the bowlers enough runs to defend in the Champions League Twenty20 League match.
Kumble felt 127 for six on a nice batting track was just not enough and the meagreness of the total completely handicapped the bowlers.
"A score like 127 on that pitch was not enough. Once the ball got old, there was some dew and it was coming nicely onto the bat. Probably 165 was a par score here," rued Kumble.
The hosts got off to a flying start, cruising to 39 for no loss inside five overs before a batting collapse left them reeling at 79 for four.
"I think the first 10 overs went our way. But once Virat Kohli got out, it just fell apart. We lost three quick wickets and could not recover from there," he rued.
And while defending, Kumble felt not getting early breakthrough dashed whatever winning hopes his team had.
"The initial thought was to get early wickets, because that is the only way you can restrict an opponent while defending 127.
"We tried hard to put pressure but it did not work," he lamented.
The Bangalore bowling was pretty pedestrian on Thursday, except for pacer Praveen Kumar. South African tearaway pacer Dale Steyn also failed to make a mark after replacing injured compatriot Jacques Kallis.
Kumble, however, came in Steyn's defence and said every player goes through a bad day.
"He is someone who bowls at 145-150 kmph and gets wickets. That's the strength he has. It was one of the days when things didn't go his way. He is otherwise a world class bowler," Kumble said.
Looking ahead, Kumble said it was difficult to make it to the semi-final stage after this loss but promised to put up a good fight against Delhi Daredevils on Saturday.
"It got tough now. The format is such that since we lost in the group stage, we are not carrying any point. So we had to win tonight but we couldn't. But we will still give our best shot against Delhi," Kumble said.
His counterpart Cameron White was elated with the win which helped his team close in on the semi-finals.
"It's great we already came from the group stage with two points. We wanted to bat first but batting second was a challenge and we did well," he said.
Andrew McDonald, whose four-wicket haul not only broke Bangalore's back but also earned him the Man of the Match award, was happy to have contributed to the team's victory.
The pitch had something for the spinner but I was lucky enough to get four wickets and I could not be happier. They did got off to a flier but we came back hard," he said.
