JOIN USSamuel Badree’s debut game for the Royal Challengers Bangalore came close to being a perfect one. The leg-spinner produced the best bowling performance of the day but couldn’t see his team end on the winning side.
After his splendid effort went in vain, the Trinidadian felt his team didn’t have enough total on the board to overhaul a strong Mumbai Indians’ batting line up.
“It is a special day. It was a Good Friday for me but unfortunately it wasn't a good Friday for the team. I just think we did not have enough runs. We had a good foundation – Chris (Gayle) at the beginning and Virat (Kohli) after that -- but I just think we did not score enough runs. Credit needs to be given to (Kieron) Pollard and Krunal (Pandya). They batted with so much maturity," said Badree at the post match press conference here on Friday.
Badree said the pitch was not an ideal one for posting a big total but felt RCB fell short of 20-30 runs. “It was the pitch, I think it was a bit slow. But at the end of the day, 142 was not special. I think we needed in excess of 160. We looked at 160-170 at one stage, but did not capitalise on the start we got. All in all, we were a bit below-par with the bat,” he offered.
Speaking about his performance, the 36-year-old said: "It is a nice feeling to get a hat-trick. To get three wickets in the powerplay, normally teams chasing lose games. But unfortunately it did not go our way tonight. It is still a tremendous feeling to get a hat-trick but it could have been so much better if we had won.”
Mumbai’s Mitchell McClenaghan praised Pollard for his match-winning innings. “I think Kieron Pollard played one of the best knocks I've seen on an incredibly difficult wicket and it shouldn't be underestimated. I think he showed the composure of a top-order batsman to assess the wicket, the situations.”