IPl 2020: Chris Morris happy to see RCB fightback

Bengaluru, October 16: After going down to Kings XI Punjab in a tense last-ball finish in Match 31 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, Royal Challengers Bangalore all-rounder Chris Morris was all praise for his team-mates for the way they fought till the end.

KXIP have found wins hard to come by in IPL 2020, but have now triumphed in both games with RCB, though only after surviving a late wobble at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Thursday (October 15) night.

The returning Chris Gayle made 53 from 45 balls but was run out from the penultimate delivery with the scores level. That left Nicholas Pooran to come out and face one ball, which he proceeded to launch down the ground for six.

The eight-wicket victory gives Kings XI renewed hope for the season, though they remain bottom of the IPL 2020 table.

IPL POINTS TABLE | RESULTS/FIXTURES

Morris, whose eight-ball 25 cameo lifted RCB to a respectable 171 for six opened the bowling and returned decent figures of none for 22, hailed his team for taking the match to the wire.

"We had enough, maybe we leaked few boundaries, maybe our gameplan was slightly wrong but for us to get the end like that to get it to the last over to the last ball quite proud of the boys for sticking there when the game was completely gone by the time second last over was bowled," Morris said in the post-match press conference.

RCB drew a lot of flak for holding back star batsman Ab de Villiers, who was at his innovative best against Kolkata Knight Riders in the previous match at the same venue, smashing an unbeaten 73 from 33 balls.

Despite that explosive display of hitting, RCB sent both Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube in ahead of him, before he eventually came out at an unusual No.6 with just four overs to go with the South African making only two runs.

Morris however defended skipper Virat Kohli's decision not to send De Villiers at his usual No.4 position, "Probably with the spinners, the left-right combination is quite difficult for a spinner or any bowler to settle. We saw it with KL (Rahul) and Gayle at the end, it was quite difficult to keep consistent lines and lengths but sometimes it pays off and sometimes it does not," he said.

RCB next take on the struggling Rajasthan Royals at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in a day game on Saturday (October 17).