A very disappointing effort, admits Mahela

Tuskers skipper pats RCB for excellent fielding, bowling

After a rather bright start, the Tuskers ended up with a sub-par 125 for nine and subsequently failed to control the marauding Chris Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan. “It was a disappointing effort today. We wanted to put a good score on the board once we elected to bat. On this wicket, something like 160 or so would have been a good total to defend, but we ended up with a small total.

“We knew Gayle and Dilshan would come hard at us and yeah, it was a disappointing effort from us today.”

Jayawardene, however, said the Royal Challengers should be given a lot of credit for coming up with a fine effort on the field and with the ball. “We had a good start but we lost wickets and they applied a lot of pressure. It was a combination of good bowling and cheap dismissals and we had that run-out (Parthiv Patel) in the middle overs and all that affected us.

“This was not a 200-run pitch but we played bad cricket and RCB was the better team today. They should be given a lot of credit for producing a good effort on the field and with the ball,” Jayawardene said.

The former Sri Lankan skipper also denied rumours that temperamental pacer S Sreesanth had protested against his omission from the playing eleven. “I don’t know what antics he did on the field. I don’t know what you are talking. I’d told him ‘you are not playing today’s match’ and he took it in the right spirit. It was a tactical decision as we thought the pitch will assist spin.

“We just had a discussion, please don’t blow this up. Nothing has happened and if there is anything, I will be the first one to tell you.”