Mo Bobat, the director of cricket at Royal Challengers Bengaluru, praised the team’s “collective contributions” and courageous character after the defending champions defeated Gujarat Titans by 92 runs in Qualifier 1 on Tuesday to advance to their second consecutive IPL final.
On Tuesday, captain Rajat Patidar’s brilliant unbeaten 93 off 33 balls and an all-around bowling effort propelled RCB to a massive 254 for five before bundling out GT for 162.
The most important lesson from RCB’s winning streak over the past two seasons, according to Bobat, is how many players have regularly performed well under pressure.
“I’m especially pleased that we’ve got a number of people contributing to wins. We’re not too dependent on one or two players with the bat or one or two with the ball. We’ve got a number of people contributing and that’s the really pleasing thing,” PTI quoted Bobat as saying after the 92-run win.
“If everybody contributes and fulfills their roles, then results should take care of themselves. That’s probably the most encouraging thing to come out of today’s game, as well as the fact that obviously you’re into the final,” he added.
After RCB lost a few early wickets, captain Patidar’s powerful innings destroyed the Titans attack, earning praise from Bobat.
“He’s certainly batting brilliantly right now and that was a really special knock today. I’m sure he’ll be really pleased about being able to stand up in a big qualifier and a big game. I think any team that’s got the captain playing well, it fills them with even greater confidence. He is leading by example,” he said.
Bobat described Patidar as a composed leader and noted that this season, the captain’s game knowledge and capacity to withstand pressure have been particularly noteworthy.
“One of the things he’s done well this year is he has picked his moments really well. A game like today, he took his time to get in after we lost a couple of wickets, built a little partnership and then went through the gears again,” he said.
“That takes a real level of discipline and sophistication to your thinking and planning, him reading situations and conditions and knowing when to go to his top gears and when to drop down a gear is a really impressive part of his development.”
According to Bobat, RCB’s aggressive batting strategy was motivated by respect for the caliber of Gujarat Titans’ batting lineup.
“We put ourselves under a little bit of healthy pressure to go, well, we need to take the game beyond them if we can. We know how good a team they are and the quality of their top order. So we wanted to try and push the game beyond them as best we could. That was part of our thought process,” he said.
Additionally, he emphasized the value of seasoned players like Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Krunal Pandya, and Virat Kohli in high-pressure games.
“I think if you can recruit a team where the guys walk towards those pressure situations and they can either counter-attack or absorb pressure and execute clinically, they’re the things you’re looking for,” he said.
Regarding Patidar’s aggressive batting style, Bobat stated that the captain of the RCB had put in a lot of effort to develop his all-around game.
“I remember at some point last season I called him a spin basher and I think he got quite annoyed with me because I was implying it was only spin,” he said with a laugh.
“He works incredibly hard and one thing about Rajat is he tends to middle the ball quite often. Whether he’s facing pace or spin, front foot or back foot, the ball hits the middle of his bat a lot.”
Venkatesh Iyer, who spent a significant portion of the season on the bench before seizing his chance in the playoffs, was also commended by Bobat for keeping a positive outlook.
“His attitude has been outstanding. At no point did it show that he was frustrated. He worked incredibly hard in practice and fought for an opportunity. As soon as he got his opportunity in the starting line-up, he took it. From ball one today, he and Virat (Kohli) set the tone and made it clear to GT that we were going to come at them,” he said.
