Flower wants RCB's 'level of aggression above a certain threshold'

After yet another underwhelming batting performance that saw Royal Challengers Bengaluru crash to their fourth defeat in five games, head coach Andy Flower admitted that his side were short of runs on a Jaipur surface that got better to bat with dew. On a night when Virat Kohli registered yet another IPL ton, none of the other RCB batters came to the party, leaving their former captain to do the bulk of the scoring.

Having posted 183 on the board, RCB then saw RR chase it down with effortless ease, led by a century from Jos Buttler and a fifty from skipper Sanju Samson.

Dwelling on the lack of intent in the batting department, Flower was brutally honest in his assessment of the issue.

"We do discuss strike rates and aggression, it's part of the understanding of the T20 game," said Flower at the post-match press conference.

"The level of aggression has to be above a certain threshold and you have to always be putting the opposition under pressure. Certainly taking the aggressive option, especially on pitches like today. It's just a fact that at the moment that our top five aren't in sparkling form except Virat. It's a tough place to be. It's not from lack of effort, they're working hard, they're giving everything they've got. Just not firing at the moment. If we've got to turn this around, we need them firing."

Kohli's hundred, also the joint-slowest IPL century of all time, was the lone ranger act although skipper Faf du Plessis did chip in with a decent knock of his own. The century opening stand had put RCB on track for a 190-plus score and perhaps the 200-run mark as well. However, once the partnership was broken, RR put the squeeze through their spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, alongside the left-arm pace of Nandre Burger. The surface did have something in it for the slower bowlers in the first half and RR's attack made full use of it.

The dew that came later on made RR's chase considerably easier but RCB had begun the second half on a positive note with Yashasvi Jaiswal perishing to Reece Topley in the first over of the chase. The two-paced nature of the track that was evident at times in the first innings, did hang around at the start of the chase, but RR negotiated that phase well. With dew always a factor in Indian conditions, RCB probably needed a cushion of 15-20 extra runs to stay in the hunt. Flower lamented the poor finish to the innings after the base set by the opening stand.

"We were a bit light (on runs) I thought, given the base we had, we were about 107/0 in the 12th over, so we should have got upwards of 200 being in that position on a good pitch. But we started well with the ball, Topley and Yash, then Siraj were brilliant upfront but the last over of the powerplay cost us some serious momentum."

With just two points from five games, RCB's road ahead to the playoffs looks murky at the moment. Given the high tempo at which batters of other teams are operating, it's imminent for Bangalore also to join in the mix. The impact player rule has furthered the adventurous levels of batters, enabling them to play fearless cricket from the get-go. A big example of this is the fact that the highest-ever IPL total set by RCB in 2013, was breached twice in the space of a week, first by Sunrisers Hyderabad and then by Kolkata Knight Riders. Flower knows that his team needs to pull up their socks at the earliest to get out of the muddle.

"We're one from five and that's not a position any side wants to be. Yes, we do have some issues with our batting. We got Virat in superb form but other guys are struggling for form and confidence. We're trying everything we can to make them feel strong and confident. As you've seen in this competition, scores and aggression of teams are only going one way. So the guys need all the form and confidence to put the opposition under pressure. We haven't found that form yet."

Skipper Faf du Plessis echoed similar sentiments at the presentation ceremony when asked to evaluate the defeat. The South African registered a 33-ball 44 but wasn't at his fluent best in the innings. Once he perished, the other batters weren't able to sync up to the nature of the surface, leaving Kohli to do it all. The RCB captain also felt that there was a stark contrast in the batting conditions across two innings.

"Batting out there with Virat tonight, we found the wicket was tricky and low in the first innings. In our heads, when we were batting, we felt 190 would be a good score. I did feel that maybe the last over or two, maybe there were 10-15 runs more that we could have maximized towards the end," Faf said.

"But if you look at how their spinners bowled through the middle, it was tough to hit; the ball was staying quite low. And a good decision by them to chase, you could see in the evening, with the dew, it played much nicer. But yeah, you feel in hindsight that you could have pushed a little bit harder and get through that 190-195 mark."