Rajasthan Royals’ batting coach Vikram Rathour conceded that his team was outplayed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Sunday.
The former India batter said his team had a par score on the slow surface and credited Phil Salt for playing a brilliant innings.
“We thought we had a par score as the ball kept low and our batters struggled a bit on it. We know how good their (RCB) batters are, and they would come hard at us. Phil Salt was brilliant, and he took the game away from us in the PowerPlay. We also dropped a few chances. The wicket became a little easier to bat on in the second innings,” he said.
MATCH REPORT | Salt-powered Royal Challengers Bengaluru cruise to win against Rajasthan Royals
On promoting Dhruv Jurel ahead of Nitish Rana, Rathour said it was done to continue the left and right combination.
RCB’s Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, said that his team was happy with the win and praised Salt for setting it up with a superb innings. Bobat said that the decision to bowl first was based on the wicket and the conditions.
“A win is a win. We will take it any day. Phil set it up nicely for us. We thought of batting first as it was a hot day, but when we arrived at the ground, there was a strong breeze blowing across it, and we changed our minds. We thought since it was the first match on this wicket, we were a little unsure of how it would behave. So we wanted the Royals to bat first for us to assess the conditions, “ he said.