Dharamsala, May 28:
Gujarat Titans batter Glenn Phillips admitted that scoreboard pressure and sloppy fielding hurt his side badly in the crushing 92-run defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL Qualifier 1, but insisted the team would quickly move on ahead of the Eliminator.
Chasing a daunting total of 254 for five, Gujarat Titans crumbled to 162 all out as their top order failed to cope with the mounting pressure.
Phillips, who did not feature in the match, said the target became increasingly difficult after RCB’s early strikes with the ball.
“250 any day is a tough ask to chase without everything going your way. There’s obviously a huge amount of scoreboard pressure when you’re trying to chase 250 and very few teams have done it,” Phillips said after the game on Tuesday.
“We went out there and gave it everything. Unfortunately, when you’re trying to chase 250, everything has to go right and obviously it didn’t,” he added.
Phillips felt the surface itself was not impossible for batting despite the massive first-innings total.
The New Zealander also pointed to Gujarat Titans’ poor fielding effort, including a costly dropped chance off Patidar, as a decisive factor in the contest. He was on 20 then. “Especially in playoff games, fielding becomes really crucial. You can bowl well and bat well, but if you field badly, you’re still going to lose,” he said.