Kumble blasts shoddy fielding

Anil Kumble has blamed Royal Challengers Bangalore's opening day defeat to Cape Cobras in the Champions League Twenty20 on a couple of dropped catches. He also praised JP Duminy, who made a classy unbeaten 99 to help Cobras pull off a stiff chase.

"When you have 180 on the scoreboard, it's always disappointing to lose. JP Duminy batted really brilliantly," Kumble said. "We dropped a number of catches that might be one of the reasons, but there are other things to be looked after.

"The ball was coming on a lot quicker on this pitch. We thought that the pitch may play slower and spin later, but Duminy put up a great fight."

The match had gone down to the last over, with Cobras needing nine off it. Kumble had then handed the ball to inexperienced R Vinay Kumar, though Jacques Kallis still hadn't completed his quota of overs. "I thought the slower ball would work and that's why I gave the task to Vinay, but it didn't work."

Andrew Puttick, the Cobras captain, said his side backed themselves despite facing a daunting target, and playing in front a large, partisan crowd. "We were confident of chasing the target," Puttick said. "We should have restricted them much earlier. We had a bad start, but Duminy was superb with the bat. If you get one batsman to play throughout the innings, then you can chase any target."

New Zealand's Otago are the other team in the group, and they start their campaign with a game against Cobras on Saturday.