'England won the FIFA World Cup in 1966 … ': RCB coach's bold take on IPL title drought

Time of India

26-05-2025

Image credit: BCCI/IPL
NEW DELHI: Ahead of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) final league-stage match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), the team's spin bowling coach Malolan Rangarajan addressed the media, reflecting on their recent loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
He described the defeat, which came after a long break, as a "good wake-up call" and emphasised that the focus remains on bowling effectively and putting pressure back on the opposition.
RCB are on the verge of sealing a spot in Qualifier 1, which would give them two shots at reaching the IPL final. A win over LSG in Lucknow on Tuesday would take them to 19 points, with nine victories, four defeats, and one no result. Depending on the outcome of the Punjab Kings vs Mumbai Indians clash, a win could also push RCB into the top two.
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RCB resumed their IPL campaign against SRH on May 23, following a three-week break. Their earlier fixture against Kolkata Knight Riders on May 17 had been washed out due to rain. The break, triggered by cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan, left the team out of match practice.
'It is a fact that we lost the last game after a big break. It is down to a lot of reasons, not having played in the last 3 weeks, and being a little rusty.
It has been documented very well that it was a good knock on the chin for us, a good wake-up call and now looking forward, even though we have guaranteed a place in one of the playoff games, it is important to focus on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and what is going to happen in the Ekana Stadium and that is what we are focusing on, how best we can start bowling, how can we put pressure back on the opponents, so we will be focusing on that.
Once that is done, we will look at how and who we play in the playoffs,' Malolan said at the pre-match press conference.
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Reflecting on their batting performance in the SRH game, where they were bowled out while chasing 232 and lost their last seven wickets for just 16 runs, Malolan admitted there were areas they could have handled better.
'But again, I am not going to dwell on the result of what happened. We could have reacted better.
We had a few issues that we had to deal with. As far as what came out of the meeting, hopefully you will see that on the ground tomorrow. Like we had a few challenges in M Chinnaswamy Stadium when we played the first few games. I think we have thought of ways we can address what had gone wrong,' he said.
Addressing the long-standing pressure on RCB to win their maiden IPL title, Malolan drew an analogy to England's World Cup drought and pointed out the strides the franchise has made in recent seasons.
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'England had won the
FIFA World Cup
in 1966, but yes, it is true that we have not won the IPL title. And we are doing what we can to ensure we become a more consistent and better team. If you look at the last five to six years, RCB has become a more consistent franchise. Whatever people used to say, I don't know if it is true or not, but people used to say that our batting was very good and bowling not so much,' he said.
'It feels like we have a balanced team, which gives a little balance to our output.
So, our thinking, like all the teams', is to win. What happened in the past is not the responsibility of the current players. It is the responsibility of the current players, which is there today and tomorrow's match. So, if we win, it will be good, but I know everyone, I know each and every player and everyone knows what their wish is and what they want to do.
So, there is definitely no pressure where we have not won, because we think how we want to play,' he added.
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Squads:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Squad:
Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarawal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Tim David, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Dar Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Swapnil Singh, Liam Livingstone, Mohit Rathee, Swastik Chikara, Abhinandan Singh, Josh Hazlewood, Nuwan Thushara, Blessing Muzarabani
Lucknow Super Giants Squad:
Mitchell Marsh, Aryan Juyal, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Deep, Avesh Khan, William ORourke, Akash Maharaj Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Manimaran Siddharth, David Miller, Arshin Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Matthew Breetzke, RS Hangargekar, Yuvraj Chaudhary.
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