(Cricket News) ‘Need skillful bowlers,’ said the head coach Andy Flower, after an irresistible RCB in May, made one of the turn arounds that every IPL fan will remember for a long time. Although the side failed to make it through to the finals, but what they did in a span of 15-20 days was nothing but remarkable.
RCB lost to the Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator of the IPL 2024 after winning 6 on the trot to make it to the final stages of the league. Andy Flower, the head coach of RCB, admitted that the total of 172 wasn’t sufficient and said the toss was a crucial factor considering the dew in the second innings. “I think the toss was important and you know when there’s significant dew that always makes it a little bit trickier fielding second,” he said at the post-match press conference.
“I think the Royals bowlers bowled really well. I thought some of their plans worked against our batsmen and so I give them a lot of credit for that. And I think we were a little short on the run side. You know when there’s dew you need a little more than 170. So I thought our bowlers and our fielders really fought hard in the middle but we were just slightly below par today,” said Flower.
RCB has had some satisfactory season in the last three years, making it to the playoffs twice. However their quest for the maiden IPL trophy still continues and with the Mega auction expected next year, RCB’s head coach Andy Flower feels that the side needs to pick up bowlers skillful enough to control the conditions at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
“As far as recruitment for next year it’s a little bit early to talk about that quite frankly. I don’t really want to talk about that stuff yet. I’m still digesting what’s happened in this game. So I do think though as part answer to your question the Chinnaswamy has some particular qualities that we need to be able to exploit. You certainly need highly skillful bowlers at Chinnaswamy,” said Flower.
“Simply pace is not going to be the answer there. You need skillful intelligent bowlers and people that can bowl to really specific plans at Chinnaswamy. I think we’ve all seen how the power game has affected T20 cricket recently. So on the batting front you certainly need to recruit batsmen with that sort of power that can keep up that sort of tempo,” Flower added.
The RCB pace battery conceded 1850 runs this season in their 7 games at the Chinnaswamy stadium. It also became the second most runs conceded by a pace bowling unit at a particular venue, only behind Wankhede in 2024. Bowling has been a concern for the RCB franchise since a long time now. In the last two seasons combined, bowlers have conceded 5227 runs at the Chinnaswamy (second most), while RCB have lost seven matches at home in the last two editions.
