Du Plessis says ‘no way to hide’ as Bengaluru's confidence hits rock bottom
RCB slumped to another defeat against SRH in IPL 2024 and captain Faf du Plessis said there was no place to hide for his bowlers when their confidence is low.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper Faf du Plessis is yet to come to grips with the confidence-denting loss against the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday.
The home favourites were demolished by the SRH batters to concede the highest total of 287 in the history of IPL at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Despite a spirited run chase, the team fell short by 25 runs to concede their fifth consecutive defeat in a match that witnessed the highest cumulative total of 549 runs scored across both innings in a T20 match.
The former Proteas skipper talked about the toil the bowling unit faced with things not falling into place for them.
"It's crazy the amount of runs scored today, a world record. I wouldn't say 270 is par, Danny. It's tough (to bowl on a day like this), we tried a few things and they weren't quite working," Faf du Plessis said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
RCB's misfiring bowling unit is one of the major reasons why they find themselves at the bottom of the points table. In the absence of their ace pacer Mohammad Siraj, their bowling order comprising Reece Topley, Lockie Ferguson and Yash Dayal was taken to the cleaners by the SRH batters. Du Plessis admitted how a string of defeats had stifled the team in terms of confidence.
"There's no way to hide when your confidence is low. The fast bowlers found it quite difficult out there. Similar to the batting perspective, we need to work on a few areas. Need to make sure the run rate doesn't go down after powerplay. The guys put up their hands and never gave up (in the run chase)."It was good to see the fight, 30-40 runs from the bowling perspective was a bit too much."
Du Plessis also talked about the mental toughness required in situations like these and the pressure of offering full commitment in every match, "It's important to go away and freshen your mind, it's such a mental game. Sometimes you feel your mind is going to explode. When you get back to the contest you have to give full commitment," he said.