RCB Bold Diaries: Mike Hesson and Adam Griffith’s thoughts on the opening day defeat

t was a tough pill to swallow for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening game of the season for the team. A total of 205 proved insufficient on the day as the Punjab Kings scaled down the target with an over to spare. Post the game, the DIrector of cricket operations, Mike Hesson gave his thoughts on the game.

On the incredible batting performance to get to 205, Hesson said, “I thought we fought really well at the back. Obviously, it was tough; the first ten overs it was a little bit sticky. The fact that we got through that, lost only one wicket sort of gave us the chance to increase that momentum post the time out. We saw some exceptional batting from both Faf and Virat, and then DK at the end to get us a really good score. As I said, obviously it got easier to bat as things went on.”

However, things didn't go as planned with the ball. “We did not execute as well as we know we need to. I think that’s pretty obvious,” said Hesson. “We were just a little bit off in terms of being able to execute the plans we had in place. Obviously, we missed wide a lot - even though we were going for the wide line, we missed the wide line a few too many times, and we know we didn’t execute as well as we know we need to. So, certainly, plenty of things to work on, some really good things from a batting point of view. Akash Deep got his first IPL wicket - that was a big thing for him, and we’re obviously proud of him. But all in all, we were just a little bit off the mark in terms of our execution,” he summarized.

Could the conditions be deemed tough to account for the lack of execution? “Look it definitely changed after 10 overs. The dew started to come in a little bit, towards the back end there was quite a lot of that,” said Hesson. “Look, there’s no excuse. At times we had the game very much in the balance. We fought hard to get back into it. Absolutely there was dew, and the ball slid on, but we still missed in terms of where we wanted to hit, so that’s something we will accept and we will obviously have to get right,” Hesson added.

On the topic of tough conditions, RCB’s fast bowling coach Adam Griffith chimed in, “Yeah, it was a tough wicket I think for bowlers in both innings. We sort of got away from them with the bat, and then they got away from us a little bit. I thought our plans were still pretty good. We just missed a little bit. But in those high-scoring games, it’s just one or two moments in a contest that can often dictate the winning or losing. We will go away and work on our execution a little bit, but I thought we weren't far away. We needed to take pace off the ball a little bit early than what we did. But we weren’t far off, and the boys will be better for the run and get to training in a couple of day’s time. We know what we need to get better at, and we will work away at that.”

Despite the narrow defeat in the season opener, there were plenty of positives the Royal Challengers will take from the game, as the team now prepares for the game against Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday, the 30th of March.