Stuart Binny has had a far from convincing IPL season – same as RCB. (Source: PTI)
Royal Challengers Bangalore have gone from last year’s IPL finalists to be the first team to be ruled out of qualifying for the playoffs. So much so, they have suffered embarrassment numerous times this season with the lowest being dismissal for 49 against KKR – lowest in IPL history. (Results | Fixtures | Points Table)
It has been a disappointing campaign for RCB with nothing going right – especially the heralded and famed batting. They’ve only been able to pick up two wins from 11 matches and had one game washed out for five points. The loss to Mumbai Indians confirmed RCB’s inability to move into the playoffs and the team has been unable to pick themselves up, admits Stuart Binny.
“We did not expect it could happen to us. We did not get the momentum going in the first half of the tournament and that is what hurt us. It has not been easy, to be honest. It is new to the team for struggling in the competition, especially we are second last [RCB are last] in the table. Yes, it has been pretty difficult for guys to be able to motivate themselves,” said Binny ahead of the contest against Kings XI Punjab on Friday.
Coach Daniel Vettori had applauded the bowlers to be the saving grace and Binny agreed. “We have not been getting exactly the scores we were looking for. However, credit must be given to bowling, especially the way we bowled when defending low totals. We needed wickets upfront, we got them, but did not get results our way. On the whole, our bowling has been pretty good this year,” he said.
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Personally he admitted the season didn’t go as planned for him either. He’s scored 78 runs and picked up four wickets. “Look, I had a couple of games where I had a decent hit, but had missed two opportunities not going our way. Yes, it has been disappointing. There were two roles assigned to me. First role was to use the new ball upfront and second was to squeeze an over or two after six overs and get a new batsman out who had just walked in,” he added.
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