'You obviously need to be aggressive' - Daniel Vettori opines on role of anchors while chasing high scores

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) would be the most relieved bunch out there after managing to beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 35 runs in Match 41 of IPL 2024. This comes after a crude start to the 17th edition of the IPL, having won only a solitary game in eight matches ahead of their fixture against SRH.

Skipper Faf du Plessis who provided a fierce start, Rajat Patidar scoring a blazing half-century, Cameron Green's assertive knock, and a couple of late cameos from Dinesh Karthik and Impact Player Swapnil Singh made RCB end up with 206/7 in their quota. Not to forget, Virat Kohli, for his 53rd fifty in the marquee tournament, around which the first two aforementioned batters revolved around, pacing their innings to perfection. 

However, what set the rest of the group and Kohli apart is the difference in strike rate - the former striking at 205.33 while the former RCB skipper could only muster 118.60. Head coach of SRH, who played for RCB in 2011 and 2012, speaking at the post-match press conference, was of the opinion that when the tracks are as good to bat on like the one during the game, with the ball hardly doing anything off the strip, going all-out is the way to go.

"I think the wicket was still pretty good. The guys who came off said that it is a surface where you can score on. The anchor role when you are chasing 207 it is hard to come, you obviously need to be aggressive. For some to sit along and play anchor role is a little bit tricky," Vettori stated during the post-match conference.

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We could have still chased it down: Vettori

The former Kiwi all-rounder also admitted that the loss to RCB was a tough pill to swallow, bearing in mind the four-game winning streak SRH had to their name coming into the clash. He also professed that if SRH had wickets in hand in the final few overs, they would've been well and truly in the reckoning (referring to SRH's slump from 37/1 in 3.3 overs to 85/6 in 9.1 overs).

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"Obviously, disappointing one where we have come from in the last four games; we played some really good cricket and even though we lost, you could see if we had some wickets at the back end, we could have still chased it down," added Vettori.