Defending champion Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Rajat Patidar praised Krunal Pandya’s batting and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s bowling after their thrilling win over Mumbai Indians here on Sunday, saying the team should have achieved the target easily.
RCB reached the top of the table by defeating Mumbai Indians by two wickets in a thrilling match with a half-century from Krunal (73 runs). RCB (14 points), which had faced defeat in the last two matches, after the brilliant performance with the ball by ‘Player of the Match’ Bhuvneshwar (four wickets for 23 runs), finally registered a spectacular victory by scoring unbeaten seven runs with one six in two balls, due to which Mumbai Indians were out of the race for the IPL playoffs.
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Patidar said after the match, “It was a very tough match, but overall it was a great game. Praising Krunal, he said, “Krunal did this for the team.” They have a lot of experience and that is why such players do wonders in big matches. ”
About Bhubaneswar he said, “Unbelievable. His control over the ball is tremendous. The wicket had good bounce and it is very difficult to face Bhuvi on such a wicket. ”
RCB reached the top of the points table but Patidar said, “Right now we are not worried about the points table. Our mantra is to play according to our strengths and play good cricket and not look at the points table. ”
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Despite a half-century by Tilak Verma (57 runs), Mumbai Indians could only score 166 runs for seven wickets in front of Bhuvneshwar’s excellent bowling. With the partnership of 55 runs in 42 balls for the fourth wicket between Krunal (four fours and five sixes in 46 balls) and Jacob Bethel (27), RCB registered a thrilling victory by scoring 167 runs for eight wickets in 20 overs.
Regarding the target, he said, “I think the bowlers did a great job by restricting them to 166 runs. But to be honest, looking at our batting lineup, we should have achieved this target easily. ”

