The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Rajat Patidar wasn’t pleased with the batting effort of his side despite the win over the Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 match in Raipur on Sunday. The defending champions moved to the top of the points table after a thrilling two-wicket win, while on the other hand, the five-time champions were eliminated from the playoff race. Chasing a 167-run target, RCB almost made a mess of it if it weren’t for Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s final over six; the Patidar-led side would have definitely lost the contest.
Virat Kohli got out for a second consecutive duck, and most of the batters weren’t able to show any sort of fight. It was just Krunal Pandya who stepped up, playing a knock of 73 to keep RCB in the game. In the final over, the equation was nine off three balls, and it was then that Bhuvneshwar hit Raj Angad Bawa’s wide yorker for a six, and eventually, the hosts won the contest.
After the victory, Patidar was quite honest in his assessment, saying his side should have chased down the target quite easily, considering the quality of the batters in the team. He added that RCB didn’t “deserve to win” after such a horror show.
“Restricting them to 166, and that was, I would say, easily chaseable. But to be honest, I think we don’t deserve to win this match because we have a skilful batting lineup. So no matter how the situation and the pitch condition are, we are capable enough to chase those targets easily,” Patidar said at the post-match presentation.
“Right now we are not bothered about the table because our mantra is to play on our strengths and play good cricket rather than looking at the table,” he added.
Role of Krunal and Bhuvneshwar
Both Krunal and Bhuvneshwar had a game to remember, but the latter won the Player of the Match award for his four-wicket haul and an unbeaten 7-run stay in the middle of just two balls.
Speaking of Krunal, he was battling cramps towards the end of his knock, but he still managed to get sixes and keep RCB in the game.
“Especially KP (Krunal Pandya). I think he’s the man who’s done it for the team. We wanted to give him an opportunity to go at number five, and he has done pretty well. There’s a lot of experience, you know. So that’s why I think those players do it in the big stage and when the team is under pressure,” said Patidar.
“I think it’s unbelievable, I would say. I think the way he (Bhuvneshwar) controlled over the ball, his control over the ball, I think is super. And it’s been difficult on a wicket that was two-paced and had variable bounce. I think it’s very difficult to play him,” he added.