RCB were not quite good enough in the key moments against SRH: Mike Hesson

Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) chances of making it to the top two took a serious hit as they were beaten by bottom-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs on Wednesday (October 6) in Abu Dhabi.

Chasing 142, RCB could manage just 137 from their 20 overs, despite the best of efforts from Devdutt Padikkal (41) and Glenn Maxwell (40). RCB coach Mike Hesson reckons RCB were not good enough in the key moments of the game.

"We were not quite good enough in the key moments to get over the line," Hesson said at the post-match virtual press conference.

"The fact that Glenn Maxwell was scoring more than 10 runs per over, he was perhaps the only batter to have fluency on this surface and he was set. He was the man we wanted at the crease, look it probably was the turning point. It probably did turn the game and we left a little too much for us to do in the end," the RCB head coach added.

Since batting was getting harder and harder, Hesson said he told Paddikal to take initiative and take the pressure off new batters during the first time-out. "It was in the first time out. It was a matter of the fact that Maxwell was going on, so Padikkal was playing the second-fiddle and he was rotating the strike," Hesson said. 

"He played that role very nicely. But as we saw, it got harder to score and time. There were a few dot balls built up and in the second time-out, around the 15th over, we told Devdutt to take the initiative and take the pressure off the other new batters," the former New Zealand coach added.

RCB, who currently sit third in the IPL 2021 table, will take on Delhi Capitals (DC) in their final group stage match before the tournament moves on to the playoffs stage.