Livid Kohli lambasts team

Skipper Virat Kohli and coach Daniel Vettori did some tough talking following Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 27-run loss -- their fourth in five matches in this edition of the Indian Premier League to Rising Pune Supergiant here on Sunday.

While Kohli demanded the intent to play without the fear of failure, Vettori asked his batsmen to be a bit more proactive in their approach. Sunday’s loss was their third in four matches and puts them at the bottom of the pile. The Bengaluru side now find themselves in an unflattering position of winning at least seven of their last nine games, a situation not too different from last season when they had to win all of their last four matches to qualify for the play-offs.

"It's very important to find the winning formula," Kohli said in his post-match comments. "If we play like this, we don't deserve to win. The last game, we fought hard. Today we let the game go away right in front of our eyes. We have a few things to address. We can't think we can sweep sides away at home. Guys can't play without intent… Last year we had to win four out of four to qualify but that can't happen every time. As professional cricketers, you're playing for a franchise, you're playing in front of a lot of people and we can't keep doing this. Hopefully we can turn things around and the players can take the responsibility,” he thundered.

Vettori partly held the slow nature of the Chinnaswamy pitch for their below par batting show at home this season but he lamented the lack of positive approach. Vettori was probably pointing to the sluggish partnership between Kedar Jadhav and Shane Watson who added just 21 runs in 27 balls.

“It was probably a case of dealing with a kind of wicket that we haven't played on before,” began Vettori talking about Bangalore’s batting woes. “It's obviously slightly slower. We are used to wickets that make it a lot easier for batsmen to hit the ball for six, hit the ball for four to catch up with a few dot balls. We probably created pressure on ourselves through dot balls, striking at below 100. Trying to catch that up in the back end on a slow wicket is incredibly difficult. I think in a lot of ways we need to be more proactive,” he reasoned.

The Challengers have struggled to get their combination right throughout this campaign and Vettori admitted it’s been one of their problems. RCB have effected as many as 11 changes in their last four matches which is a reflection of their lack of balance.

“The thing is in the IPL we're constantly searching for the right balance,” Vettori said. “In the Mumbai game, we were down a bowler. Shane (Watson) has been such a successful all-rounder in T20 cricket for a long period of time and so we made the decision to back Shane (in place of Chris Gayle) because of his all-round contribution. It's tough for everyone in T20 cricket. A lot of domestic players have had to step in and perform after missing a few games or not being in their best form. We know Chris is a very good performer and we know if he can get on a roll then we can utilise him in a positive manner. At this stage we are just trying to find the right balance.”