As they had to chase down a 232-run goal, RCB’s wicketkeeper-batter Phil Salt, who opened alongside Virat Kohli, helped give the team a fantastic start. The pair scored 80 runs in seven overs, but sadly, Virat was caught by Harsh Dubey, which marked the beginning of the Rajat Patidar-led batting unit’s demise. Salt gave it his best, scoring 62 off 32 balls, but the RCB ultimately lost by 42 runs due to a lack of support from the other end.
In the Indian Premier League 2025 Match 66 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, Royal Challengers Bengaluru suffered a heartbreaking loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad. With one league stage game remaining, there will be intense fight for the first and second slots, respectively, even though RCB, who have already qualified for the playoffs, would have guaranteed their place in the top two.
Following the defeat, Salt spoke candidly, admitting that while he is a little disappointed to be on the losing team, he would prefer to lose a league game than one in the playoffs. Phil Salt, who is adamant about winning the trophy for RCB, stated that there are various ways to interpret the defeat and that he still sees it as a good thing.
That’s one perspective, I suppose. You don’t mind that this game isn’t in the playoffs, to put it another way. You can choose to accept it as what it is or as a disappointment. We lost the game, but we qualified. Nobody enjoys losing cricket matches. According to Cricbuzz, Phil Salt stated following the defeat against SRH, “I’m hating the fact that we lost, as will everybody else in an RCB shirt, but we’d rather have this now than in an eliminator.”
“While pursuing it, we accomplished a lot of positive things. It goes without saying that we reached a point at 15 overs where everyone in our dressing room thought we would win the match. The margins are obviously fine most of the time, but tonight’s margins for failure were extremely fine. You significantly iced the game when you hit an over of 20 at that moment. Sometimes cricket is like that. We’ll examine our strengths and areas for improvement,” the Englishman continued.
You have to play carelessly during the playoffs: Phil Salt
The stumper-batter went on to say that after a team has advanced to the playoffs, everyone’s objective is straightforward and obvious: to play for the team’s benefit.
“We would rather finish first, second, third, or fourth, but I can’t sit here and tell you that. We’ve advanced to the playoffs, and once there, you have to go play carefree and try your hardest to take home the trophy. Right now, that kind of thinking isn’t too far ahead of us. We’ll be playing Lucknow here again in a few days, and we want to win so that everyone can see how good we are. “It’s fairly easy to understand, and we’re just focussing on the next game,” he added.
After a brief delay due to the Indian government’s execution of Operation Sindoor, Phil Salt, who had to miss a few games earlier in the season due to illness, is happy to be well again and even delighted that the tournament can start up soon.
It’s a humorous one. Sitting on the bed while you’re sick, you question whether you’ll ever feel better. You reflect on the things you took for granted while you were well and other similar things. We hadn’t played cricket as a team for three weeks, and I haven’t played in perhaps a month. The RCB player said, “I’m just happy to be healthy and playing cricket again more than anything else.”
India
