Mumbai, May 10: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) head coach Sanjay Bangar has been effusive in his praise for 28-year-old top batsman Rajat Patidar since forging a fine partnership with captain Faf du Plessis after Virat Kohli will look for a first ball. duck against Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 8.
At Wankhede Stadium, thanks to Patidar’s 48 and du Plessis’ undefeated 73, RCB clinched their second straight victory after a string of defeats to get their 2022 IPL campaign back on track.
Bangar said the emphatic 67-run victory against SRH, their seventh in IPL 2022 which helped them climb to fourth in the points table, had brought smiles back in camp.
“We did it thanks to the CSK victory. This was quite special in terms of what we liked about the CSK game: everyone contributed. The confidence in the game was similar. The message was clear: go out there and play well.” The conditions weren’t easy for the hitters, but thanks to all the hitters who went out there and did a job for us. From that perspective, I feel like we got a good score on the board,” Bangar said.
On Patidar, the head coach said: “For Rajat, we always trust his abilities. In fact, he is the one who would take the pressure off in the first six overs. In the first two overs, we would really feel the pressure after losing Virat in the first ball of the match. But the way they (Patidar and du Plessis) handled that, at one point even 43 for the loss of a wicket seemed like a very, very good achievement at the time.” Bangar then spoke about the transition in the gears. “They got stronger and stronger and that laid the groundwork for other hitters to come in and play like they did,” he said.
It also shed light on the gate.
“The wicket slowed down and the ball got softer too. The longer the batsman stays there and when he’s batting for 35-40 balls, he gets tired too. The DK infusion was important because he was fresh. He could take on the bowlers “At one point, we were even considering if we could ask Faf to come back because he was really cooked at the time. But I think the three associations that he (du Plessis) managed to form were critical enough to get him to 193,” Bangar said.