IPL 2020: AB de Villiers reveals turning point in RCB's loss against SRH

Sharjah, November 1: Royal Challengers Bangalore wicketkeeper-batsman AB de Villiers reveals the turning point of the match which ended in a five-wicket win for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

After RCB were restricted to a paltry 120, Wriddhiman Saha and Jason Holder scored 39 and 26 respectively as SRH chased down the target at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Saturday (October 31).

De Villiers, who scored 24 off 24, felt RCB's initial plan of aiming for 160 was a bit high on the wicket where 140 would have been a good score.

"Yes, we were initially talking about 160 which I think was a bit high. Right at the end there we were starting to talk about 140 would be a good score," said De Villiers in the post-match press conference.

SRH bowlers led by Sandeep Sharma, restricted RCB to 30/2 in the powerplay and De Villiers credited his opponents for the bowling effort.

"Credit to them they bowled exceptionally well. From the word go they didn't give us a lot of boundary balls. Their seamers particularly started well in the PowerPlay. They didn't make a lot of mistakes. After the PowerPlay, it didn't get much easier with Rashid, who didn't bowl a lot of bad balls either tonight. I think they applied a lot of pressure," said De Villiers

De Villiers had no hesitation in saying that his and Josh Philippe's wicket in quick succession was the reason for their loss.

"The turning point was probably, well josh and I got out back to back. It cost us 20-30 runs now if you look at it. At the end of the day, it might have not been enough anyway. The field got very wet in the second innings which changed the conditions quite a bit and maybe 140 would have been short as well," he added.

With this win, SRH have now climbed to the fourth spot in the points table with 12 points from 13 matches, while RCB remained in second place with 14 points from 13 matches.

RCB will now face Delhi Capitals in their last league game as both teams look to seal the second spot at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Monday (November 2).