'He needed to chill out for 4-5 balls' - Aaron Finch unhappy with Rajat Patidar for throwing his wicket away

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fell agonisingly short during their pursuit of a 223-run target against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday, April 21 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, losing the game by just one run. This was RCB's seventh loss in eight games and they continued languishing at the foot of the table with just two points and a disastrous net run-rate (NRR) of -1.046.

During the run chase, RCB lost both their openers inside the first four overs. However, Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar joined forces to stitch a 102-run partnership off 48 balls to give Faf du Plessis' side hopes of a memorable win. However, they departed in the same over as Andre Russell got the better of them.

Jacks was the first one to be dismissed for a 32-ball 55 as he hit a slot delivery straight to long-on. Three balls later, Patidar perished for a 23-ball 55 as he tried to whip a slower delivery across the line to the leg-side but it caught the leading edge and went straight up in the air before settling in the hands of Harshit Rana at backward point.

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Former Australian captain Aaron Finch said that Patidar should have continued batting for a couple of overs to ensure that two new batters didn't get together at the crease.

“He had to make sure that he batted 2 to 3 overs deeper for RCB to have a batter who is in. Yes, we have seen some huge scores and we have seen guys walking out and trying to smack the ball out of the park from ball one. But there has to be a strategy behind it as well,” Finch told Star Sports.

“You can’t be walking out and throwing wickets away, particularly in batters. It’s hard enough to get in, especially on a surface like that where the ball was holding enough and spinners were having an impact. Patidar needed to chill out for maybe 4 or 5 balls, get to the next over and then reassess. But you can’t afford to have two in batters get out in the same over,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Kolkata started brilliantly after being invited to bat first as Phil Salt hit a 14-ball 48. Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, and Venkatesh Iyer departed cheaply but Shreyas Iyer scored a 36-ball 50 to take the KKR innings forward. Russell and Ramandeep Singh stitched a blistering 43-run partnership off 16 balls to help the hosts finish on 222/6 in their 20 overs.

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The equation came down to 21 runs required off the final over for RCB. Karn Sharma hit a struggling Mitchell Starc for three sixes off the first four balls to take the visitors to the brink. However, the Australian speedster came back to dismiss him off the fifth ball and a last-ball run out helped KKR take two crucial points and march towards the playoffs.