IPL 2020: 'Going to be tough,' predicts Bangalore coach Simon Katich before 'next phase'

Bangalore head coach Simon Katich has said that the next eight days will make or break the side's run in the tournament as they will play four matches in quick succession. The three-time finalists suffered a 59-run loss at the hands of Delhi during their Dream11 IPL 2020 league match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Monday night. 

'It's going to be tough': Simon Katich

"In the next phase, we have four games in eight days, it's going to be tough, this is where we will make or break the tournament. I still want us to be really positive," Katich told his players after the match in a video posted on the official Twitter handle of Bangalore. 

"Early on we gave them momentum, and from there on, we were never able to come back, they got us to a good start in the powerplay, from there on we were playing catch up. We managed to get back in the middle but towards the end of the innings, we leaked runs and missed catches, that cost us 15-20 runs extra. We were outplayed from Delhi, they were really disciplined, they played the conditions really well. We need to be smarter as to what we do with the shorter and longer boundary," Katich said.

Delhi make it to the top

Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to chase. Openers Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan helped their team get off to a brisk start as they added 68 runs for the opening wicket stand in the seventh over before Shaw was sent back for 42. It then seemed that Kohli & Co. would stage a comeback after having reduced Delhi to 90/3 but that was not to be as their middle-order batsmen Rishabh Pant (25-ball 37) and Marcus Stoinis (26-ball 53) put on 89 runs for the fourth-wicket stand as a result of which the Shreyas Iyer-led side posted a stiff total of 196/4 from their 20 overs.

In reply, Bangalore's innings never took off as they lost wickets at regular intervals on a wicket where batting seemed to be difficult during the second innings and they were reduced to 75/4 in no time.

Skipper Virat Kohli decided to take matters into his own hands and played some delightful shots to keep his team in the contest.

However, with the asking rate getting steeper he had to go for big shots and in the end perished for 43 when he decided to clobber Kagiso Rabada into the stands only to get an inside edge with Rishabh Pant making no mistakes behind the stumps. 
The three-time runners-up could never recover after that and were eventually restricted to 137/9 in their 20 overs. Rabada was the pick of the bowlers for Delhi with figures of 4/24 from his 4 overs.

By the virtue of this win, Delhi have made it to the summit of the points table.

(Image Courtesy: @RCBTweets)

(With ANI Inputs)