In order to make up for our limited bowling alternatives, we must score more runs: Faf du Plessis

In light of the Mumbai Indians’ (MI) convincing victory over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Thursday, April 11, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Faf du Plessis conceded that the team lacks depth in the bowling department.

After Hardik Pandya won the toss and decided to field first, Jasprit Bumrah struck for five wickets on an explosive track, dashing RCB’s chances of amassing a total of more than 200 runs. RCB managed to post a fighting total of 196/8 because of a late blitzkrieg from Dinesh Karthik. But the legendary Mumbai batsmen made the chase seem easy, cruising home with seven wickets and 27 balls remaining.

Captain du Plessis bemoaned the lack of bowling options in the RCB camp after Bengaluru’s fifth loss in six games in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. According to the South African icon, who reached his first half-century of the season, the bowlers will need to try and reinvent themselves going ahead, while the batters will need to aim for scores in the region of 220.

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“It seems like we need to try and push for 220 runs in order to have a shot right now from a batting standpoint. We have fewer weapons when it comes to bowling. Consequently, it is regrettably up to us batters to make sure we employ our form and confidence. “It seems like the scores we put on the board will be our only chance to advance in the competition,” du Plessis stated following the game.

On Thursday, Du Plessis employed six bowling options. With an economy rate of 10.70, Vijaykumar Vyshak was the most economical bowler of the evening. After a 101-run partnership between Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma within the first nine overs, the RCB bowling lineup was virtually destroyed.

Our bowlers committed a lot of errors because of MI batters. Faf du Plessis

We have to go out and find inventive ways within our team to put a team two or three down on the powerplay because, from a bowling standpoint, we haven’t had a lot of penetration [at the beginning]. just to give you the impression that you can get off to a fast start when bowling. Du Plessis remarked, “It feels like we are behind after the first few overs in the last few games.”

“You also need to acknowledge the way the MI boys performed when they came out. Apply a great deal of pressure on our bowlers. made a lot of blunders with our bowlers, especially during the powerplay. Anyone entering the bat could clearly find the middle of the bat with ease. We discussed it in the first inning, as we were aware of that. We believed we needed to acquire at least 220, if not more, since the dew here appeared to be going to be large. “Obviously, 190 [196] or whatever our total was was insufficient,” he continued.

To set up the crushing victory for the five-time champions, Kishan blasted 69 off 34 balls and Suryakumar Yadav hit 52 off 19 balls. Karthik, Rajat Patidar, and du Plessis had earlier in the day struck half-centuries, but those efforts were ultimately in vain.