Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 3 : Royal Challengers Bengaluru head coach Andy Flower felt that Gujarat Titans' pace spearhead Mohammed Siraj was head and shoulders above the rest. He wished him all the "success" in the world while affirming that the franchise is "happy" with the current squad.
After the Royal Challengers opted to part ways with Siraj, the experienced seamer returned to his former home and was invaluable in forcing the hosts to surrender to their first defeat of the season. Siraj, deemed as the Player of the Match, struck at crucial junctures, forced his former side to tilt at windmills and returned with rollicking figures of 3/19.
His economical yet lethal spell saw RCB limp to 169/8, a sub-par total considering Chinnaswamy's high standards. In reply, a batting blitz from Jos Buttler Sai Sudharsan steered GT to a comfortable 8-wicket win. As GT effortlessly gunned down RCB's total and was a cock-a-hoop, Flower didn't shy away from showering praise on Bengaluru's former hero after the match.
"Siraj bowled very well, didn't he? It is great for him to come here and do that. I thought he bowled an outstanding spell with the new ball. His lines were tight, and the lengths were good. He threatened the stumps a lot,' Flower said in the post-match press conference.
The right-armer threatened right from the beginning and made early inroads with Arshad Khan. The experienced speedster bowled in tandem with the uncapped quick to the game away from Bengaluru in the powerplay.
After a shambolic start to his stint with the Titans, Siraj has found the groove and rhythm he is highly regarded for. He opened his wicket's account by sharply nipping the ball into Devdutt Padikkal and cleaned up his stumps. He unleashed the famous Cristiano Ronaldo celebration, marking the beginning of his dominance.
In his next over, he tested the speed gun, clicked 144kph and burst through Phil Salt's stance to clean him up and add another name to his wickets column. He returned to attack in the death overs and got his third scalp of the day, forcing a top edge from Liam Livingstone (54), denting RCB's hopes of crossing the 200-run mark.
Siraj could have extended his stay in Bengaluru in a different scenario. Flower isn't dwelling on the missed opportunity to retain Siraj. He affirmed that they are happy with their current situation.
"We all rate Siraj very highly, and we love him. I think we had a good auction. I wish him all the success in the world. We are happy with the squad that we have got," he added.
Apart from Siraj's scorching spell, Flower traced down the moment his side took the first step towards defeat. He pointed out their aggressive approach in the powerplay, which backfired and led to the loss of four wickets, leaving them at 38/3. In contrast, Flower pointed out the defensive approach that the Titans resorted to, allowing them to have a buffer of wickets towards the end.
"When they came out chasing a smaller total than what is normal in Chinnaswamy, you could see they played more carefully in powerplay and tried to keep wickets in hand. We played aggressively in the powerplay and lost four wickets in the powerplay. So that was obviously a big swing in the game. Often, if you lose in the powerplay, you are in trouble," he said.
"They were very different powerplays. I thought we scrapped very well after the powerplay. I think the toss was reasonably important. There was quite a lot of dew out there. I think the dry ball did grip off the seam, and I think that was fairly important in the context of the game. It wasn't a typical Chinnaswamy wicket, where you expect the ball to come quicker than that. GT played better than us and were sharper than us," he added.