RCB bowlers backed their strong skill sets, says Southee

Tim Southee says RCB bowlers were able to bowl according to the pitch against the Mumbai Indians

Bengaluru, May 2: Tim Southee, who bagged the man of the match award in Royal Challengers Bangalore's win over Mumbai Indians on Tuesday (May 1), said the RCB bowlers backed their skill sets.

"We went to our strongest skill-set and that's trying to swing the ball," said Southee.

"There was a little bit of assistance there with the swing and we were able to take those early wickets. And once it stopped swinging, we adapted to that, to the cross-seam deliveries which were holding on the surface and moving a little bit off the surface as well.

"We were reasonably smart as a bowling unit and we were able to assess the conditions, as we got the advantage of watching our batters play on it and talking to our batters about what they found tough and the lengths and the variations," said Southee.

The New Zealand pacer Southee said picking up three Mumbai wickets early was crucial for RCB.

"Mumbai have got a dangerous top order and we were able to not even give them a sniff and take those early wickets," Southee said.

However, Southee agreed that the last over blitz by Colin de Grandhomme in which he took 24 runs off Mithcell McClenaghan turned the match in favour of RCB.

"We scraped through to a good score in the end, thanks to that last over. It was important. Obviously Colin had been out there for a while and he got used to the pace of the wicket and was able to capitalise in that last over when Mitch missed a few times. That did give us a big boost there to go out and bowl," said Southee.

In the post-match presentation, Virat Kohli, the Bangalore captain, said his decision to let his bowlers make their own calls towards the death so as to not 'confuse them.'

"We might have spoken about too many things in the past," Kohli said. "This time, we told the bowlers 'back your gut-feel, pick your fields, take ownership of the decisions you make and then if it doesn't go right, accept it', but to confuse them too much doesn't help."

Southee agreed to Kohli's words after giving away just 10 runs in the final over as Mumbai needed 25 runs for a win.

"It got a little bit close towards the end. But I think Virat backed the guys to go out there and back their strongest skill-set," he said.