IPL 2018: Brendon McCullum disappointed with RCB's fielding

IPL 2018 has not been very kind towards the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) thus far. Not only have they lost matches, but they’ve let winnable encounters slip out of their hands one time too many. RCB batting mainstay, Brendon McCullum recently expressed his disappointment with the fielding department of his team and elucidated on the current mood in the dressing room.

RCB has produced some fine knocks from the willows of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in this season. However, their bowling and fielding have been abysmal and as a result, the team has lost in spite of setting up totals as huge as 206 runs. The previous match against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) saw a few too many dropped catches and RCB ended up losing the match by 6 wickets.

Brendon McCullum lauds bowlers

As reported by The Times of India, Brendon McCullum credited the bowlers for having bowled the right areas and expressed his disappointment with the fielding. “We had our chances. We dropped catches and weren’t at our best in the field. I thought we were good with the bat and the ball but in the field, we were a bit disappointing, and you can’t be like that in this competition. If you look at the way we executed our plans where we wanted the ball to be bowled, we actually bowled there. We created chances but didn’t execute those chances. I don’t want to be too harsh on the bowlers. We should have backed them up with our fielding,” he said.

RCB have a tough road ahead of them, with five of their seven remaining matches being away games. However, McCullum displayed positive intent and said, “It’s always tough when you’re losing a few games and not getting the results you want. But you got to be strong. Some people may doubt you, but none of that matters. You got to believe you’ve the ability to be able to be standing at the end of the tournament with the trophy in your hand.”

The opening batsman also bemoaned the absence of AB de Villiers, who was down with viral fever in the previous match and said, “We missed AB. He’s probably the best player in the world and probably one of the best we’ve seen in the history of the game.”

Speaking on how the team would tackle the upcoming games, McCullum said, “We’re going to be on the road soon. It’ll be nice to get a win on the road in a couple of days’ time. We’ve got to do it tough but that’s our own fault. We haven’t had the results at the start of the tournament. But I believe in all of the group of guys. It’ s just a matter of us transitioning that into points, staying tight as a unit and making sure we’re delivering on our potential as players as well.”

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