The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises vs curator battle has now reached the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. As the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) suffered a 6-wicket defeat against Delhi Capitals, the home franchise’s mentor Dinesh Karthik turned his attention towards the pitch curator, openly claiming that this is not the sort of pitch that his team wanted. Karthik, in the post-match press conference on Thursday, said that the curator was asked to prepare a ‘good wicket’ that would aid batters for the first two matches. However, that wasn’t the case.

Speaking to media after his team’s second successive home defeat, Karthik said that it was a tricky wicket that his side hadn’t expected as the instructions to the curator were clear on preparing a batting-friendly track.

“I think the way T20 cricket is, the more runs are there, the better it is for the broadcaster, the better it is for the fans. They all like to see boundaries,” Karthik said. “In the first two games, we have asked for good pitches. But it’s turned out in this way where it’s been challenging to bat on, for sure.

“Definitely, this is not a pitch that’s helping the batters too much. It’s a challenging pitch. That has been the case so far in both the games that we have played.”

Karthik also said that he is set to hold a chat with the curator about the nature of the pitches at home going forward.

“There’s been a wobble when people have tried to stay out there and fight it out as well. It’s been hard to, at times, rotate strike. And the big shot has been really hard as well. So we have tried to control it [the urge to keep hitting],” Karthik asserted. “But, at the end, it’s a T20. You have to play some shots and that has gotten the wicket of a few batters.

“We will obviously have a chat with the curator. We trust him to do his job, and we will try and do the best of what we can,” he further said.