Lucknow, May 8 (IANS) Royal Challengers Bengaluru director of cricket Mohammad Bobat praised the fighting spirit shown by his side, lauding the knocks of captain Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal despite suffering a narrow nine-run defeat against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in a thrilling IPL clash at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

Chasing a daunting 213 in the rain-curtailed 19-overs-a-side contest, RCB were rocked early after losing both openers cheaply, including Virat Kohli for a two-ball duck. However, Padikkal and skipper Patidar revived the chase with a counterattacking 95-run partnership before the visitors eventually finished at 203/6.

“Yeah, obviously disappointing to not be able to pick up the two points. I would say that it was encouraging to see some really brave performances from some of the boys today,” Bobat said in a video released by RCB on X.

“It’s not often that we’ll be losing both of our openers as early as we did today. Our top order has been fantastic all season, so a bit of a rarity there, but actually the character that Dev and Rajat showed was fantastic,” He added.

Bobat credited Padikkal and Patidar for absorbing pressure after the early collapse and then shifting momentum back towards RCB.

“They absorbed pressure for a period of time, and then actually they put some pressure back on them, and towards the back end of their partnership, we were right in that game, so those two deserve a lot of credit for the way they batted,” he said.

Patidar led the charge with a blistering 61 off 31 balls while Padikkal contributed 34 off 25 deliveries to keep RCB alive in the chase. Later, Tim David smashed 40 off just 17 balls to take the contest deep.

Bobat also praised bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Krunal Pandya for their efforts during LSG’s innings.

“I think we did an amazing job to get that close. And also, we must remember that Bhuvi and KP bowled brilliantly, I thought as well, in particular,” he said.

Looking ahead to RCB’s next clash against the Mumbai Indians, Bobat said the team would quickly regroup and focus on improving key areas.

“As we always do, we’ll give ourselves a bit of time to have a think. We have quite a tight turnaround, so it’s only a couple of days away that we play at MI.

“So the boys, as they always do, will get their heads together and have a little think about the things that maybe they could have done a bit better. The coaches will do the same. We’ll travel tomorrow and look to touch base the day before the MI game, and there’ll certainly be a few areas of the game that we want to tighten up,” he added.

–IANS

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