JOIN USYet Suresh Raina and Albie Morkel did the job, taking the game away from us in the blink of an eye, and giving themselves five days to prepare for the showdown.
So far as Royal Challengers Bangalore are concerned, we may have lost a close battle but we are still very much in with a chance of winning the war. We will now prepare to play either the Kolkata Knight Riders or the Mumbai Indians in another eliminator in Chennai on Friday and then, if we win, we’ll play CSK in the final on Saturday.
CSK are a powerful outfit. They’re not the defending champions for nothing and, with big hitters like Raina, Morkel and MS Dhoni in their middle order, they can never be ruled out of any run chase until the target is mathematically impossible. That said, just like any other team, they are beatable, as we proved a few days ago.
At RCB, our challenge is now simple -- we must retain the self-confidence and self-belief that helped us dominate so much of the match.
Virat Kohli batted brilliantly again and it seemed as if we were on course to win the match until that frenetic finale.
We need to build on the positives of our performance, and not allow ourselves to wallow in the disappointment of a narrow defeat in a great match.
The start of this tournament seems a long time ago but ever since those early days there has been a fantastic spirit within the RCB squad.
From owner Dr Vijay Mallya right through the entire organisation, there is a sense of professionalism and a collective desire to win which will drive us through the challenges on Friday and Saturday.
We will take this desire to Chennai. We will work hard. We will prepare to bat with energy and intent, to field with intensity and to bowl with unrelenting accuracy. We all believe we have the ability to win this tournament and, even though we may have chosen the difficult path to victory, as a group, we genuinely believe we will prevail. With only two games remaining in IPL 4, we are still bidding for glory.
Hawkeye Communications