IPL 2021: “RCB are far better than this, they need to bounce back” - Salman Butt

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has described Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) body language in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as one not expected from a team in the top four.

The RCB were hammered by nine wickets in match 31 of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) in Abu Dhabi on Monday. Batting first, they were bowled out for 92, after which KKR gunned down the target in 10 overs.

Analyzing RCB’s performance, Butt stated that the team is much better than the effort they put up on Monday against KKR. He said on his YouTube channel:

“When RCB were nine down, the cameras panned to their dressing room, and everyone looked down and out. It seemed they had already given up. Everyone from Virat Kohli to Sanjay Bangar and the support staff looked dejected. This is not the body language of a team that is in the top four. RCB are far better than this and they need to bounce back.”

He added that RCB’s poor outing against KKR has opened the door for lower-placed teams to push their way into the top four. Butt added:

“The good thing is that other teams can now get a chance to enter the top four if they do well. They have quite a few games left. Everyone has everything to fight for, so the competition is becoming interesting.”

Following the KKR-RCB encounter, Kolkata moved up to the no.5 spot in the IPL points table and improved their net run rate to +0.110. Bangalore remain in third position with five wins from eight games.

You can check out the IPL teams and squads here.

---

“Could not understand RCB's game plan against KKR” - Salman Butt

The former Pakistan captain questioned RCB’s batting tactics against KKR. According to him, they seemed to have no proper game plan in place. Butt said:

“I could not understand RCB's game plan against KKR. There was no fluency in the way they played. Virat Kohli came in and played a nice shot but then he played across the line to a good delivery from Prasidh Krishna. AB de Villiers seemed too late on the ball. The delivery pitched on his legs and crashed into the stumps.”

Questioning Maxwell’s approach, he added:

“Maxwell played a bizarre innings. He is not a good player of slow bowling and looked clueless against the spinners. When Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine were bowling, it didn’t seem like Maxwell was picking them at all. He didn’t even take a chance against fast bowlers, which is his strength. By the time he was dismissed, he didn’t know what had happened to him.”

As per the IPL 2021 time table, RCB will next take on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Sharjah on September 24.