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Faf du Plessis will “sleep easier” following the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s thrilling 35-run victory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad, which snapped their six-match losing streak. Spinners Karn Sharma and Swapnil Singh claimed four wickets together early in the game, and after Rajat Patidar’s fifty off twenty took RCB to 206 for 7, they restricted the home team to 171 for 8. With this victory, RCB has maintained their chances of qualifying for the playoffs.
The captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore stated that it was a “huge relief” and that the victory may restore the team’s morale. He had earlier acknowledged that a run of losses could wear down his guys mentally.
“Last two games, we’ve shown great signs of fight,” du Plessis said at the presentation. “The SRH game was 270-plus and we got to 260, then the KKR game as well, just one run. It was almost a record chase. We’ve been close for a while but you need to win matches to get confidence back in the group. It’s a massive relief. No matter where we are, when you’re not winning it does affect you, it does affect you mentally, it does affect your confidence. I will sleep a bit easier tonight.”
“You can’t speak confidence into the group, you can’t fake confidence into the group. The only thing that gives confidence is performance. First half of the competition we certainly felt like we weren’t near our full potential. And when you’re playing at 50% or 60%, obviously, you try 100%, but you don’t get the confidence in your group. The competition is so strong, the teams are so strong that you’ll get hurt [if you’re not at 100%].
“The last week and a half we have been working hard to make sure we get better at our own game. You can see the last game; there is some confidence in our batting. We have got more guys scoring runs now. For the first half of the tournament only it was only Virat [Kohli] contributing. Rajat playing two really good innings back-to-back, Greeny [Cameron Green] getting runs, it’s massive for him just to get that load off his shoulders. It’s important as a batting line-up to contribute together because we have seen the scores are so big, it’s never going to be just one guy scoring the runs.”