'Our inexperience did us in'

Bengaluru: Rajasthan Royals skipper Shane Warne out up a brave front after his side were thrashed by 10 wickets in an away game against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday.

The champion leg spinner admitted that his side were outplayed by Anil Kumble’s men who are playing their best cricket in the tournament.

On the opening spell by Dale Steyn and Praveen Kumar

I wouldn’t say that his [Dale Steyn’s spell] won them the game. I think it was the combination of all their bowlers. I think all their bowlers bowled well on a very good pitch. Our players just went up. I think we just were not good enough tonight - as simple as that. We were outplayed. I think the lack of experience and not [being able to] sum up the situation quick enough and how to get off the strike and rotate the strike [did us in].

On three back to back defeats

Yeah, thanks for reminding me. But what can one do? The first game against Mumbai – Yusuf [Pathan] had set that up for us but we couldn’t finish and the boys fell a little bit. The second game we played against Delhi was a little bit of a hangover from the first game. And I thought that we are going to put up a good performance here but full credit to Bangalore. I thought they came out and bowled extremely well and set up the tone. And unfortunately for us we were just not good enough today.

On his gameplan for a comeback

Yeah, we have to do something quickly. At the end of the day we have to win some seven or eight games - might be seven games with a good run rate. I think that will probably get us in. We are not out of it but we will if we keep on playing like this. We will keep trying and that is one thing which our guys will carry on doing. There will be days when we will be outplayed but we will not stop trying. The players will not give up. We [need] one little thing to click and then it will change the momentum. So, we need to keep trying. We are a talented group and winning is a habit. The confidence in the squad is pretty low so we need to keep our chins up and try.

On his next match against Kolkata Knight Riders

My son's Under-12 side would be tough at the moment. See, most of the sides are evenly balanced. I hope that we keep performing well from here on.

On their plans failing against Jacques Kallis

We certainly had plans for Kallis but unfortunately we couldn’t execute [them]. We were attacking with slips and gulleys but with just over 90 runs on the board, it is hard to defend the total. Hopefully, in the next game we will be able to execute our plans.

On the Bengaluru wicket

I think it was a 200 plus wicket. I thought it was a beautiful wicket. It had pace and allowed batsmen to play shots. When you are losing wickets all the time, it is hard to play shots. When you are rebuilding in T20, the overs bank up and the score is not going anywhere and then there is too much to do in the end. The first six or seven overs are something we need to look at while batting.

On RCB’s strategy of bowling short balls

We have worked on the short ball. I think Dale Steyn bowling at 150 km/hr is never easy. I think Jacques Kallis bowls those short balls well and although he never registers that speed, they are as effective as any. Their short balls were not wide and were right on their money. People have been trying to bowl the short ball to Yusuf and one of them hit his helmet. But then Ricky Ponting, who plays pull shots better than anyone, gets hit on the helmet. So these things happen. Yusuf is a wonderful striker of the ball and they can try and bowl short to him. Good luck to them.