INDORE: Royal Challenger Bangalore (RCB) has blamed the dew on the field for not being able to make a high score in the match against Kings XI Punjab.
Kings XI Punjab defeating RCB by 8 wickets in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Holkar Cricket Stadium here yesterday. "Our team's score of 148 was not sufficient. Because of grass on the pitch, we decided to bat first after winning the toss with a hope that the ball will come straight to the bat and we would be able to make a big score," RBC's Stuart Binny, who scored an unbeaten 18, told reporters last night.
"But the dew prevented the balls from coming onto the bat properly," he said. "At the time of batting, the dew started falling on the pitch and the wicket was behaving such that we were being forced to play 18-20 balls at ease to firm up our position on the ground before playing big strokes," he said.
On RCB's explosive batsman Chris Gayle not being included in the playing eleven and replaced with AB de Villiers, Binny said, "We had no option as de Villiers was found fit for playing the match and as per the IPL rules, since no more foreign player could be included in the final eleven."
He said RCB was planning to take two wickets of Kings XI Punjab, which was chasing the target of 149 runs, in the first five-six overs to bring them under pressure but it didn't work.