Dealing with powerplays pulling RCB down: KP

Kevin Pietersen feels that his side's inability to tackle the Powerplays has brought about their downfall in the IPL.

Royal Challenger Bangalore captain Kevin Pietersen feels that his side8217;s inability to tackle the Powerplays,both during batting as well as bowling,has been one of the main reasons for their mediocre show in the ongoing Indian Premier League.

8220;Definitely,the target was far too big. Adam Gilchrist did play well,but we haven8217;t helped ourselves in the first six overs of each game,8221; he said after his team lost by 24 runs to Deccan Chargers at the Sahara Park Newlands.

8220;And,certainly in our batting we haven8217;t done as well in the first six overs as we should have. We are losing far too many wickets in the six overs. Even the bowling in the last two games in the first six overs hasn8217;t been good. We need to put it behind us very quickly,8221; he was quoted as saying by the official website of IPL.

Asked if he was happy with the fielding,Pietersen said 8220;There is always room for improvement in batting,bowling and fielding. I think we can improve on it8221;.

On the reason for the batting failure,the Englishman replied 8220;Don8217;t know,mate8221;.

Pietersen agreed that his team was struggling to overcome the problem of losing early wickets since last year.

8220;I think early wickets and also the fact that we have let the other side get off to a start. Like we have done with Matthew Hayden and Parthiv Patel when we didn8217;t bowl well; then exactly the same thing this evening,I just think we can definitely help ourselves a little bit more,8221; he said.

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He said Rahul Dravid was playing very well but the targets were too big in their last too matches. 8220;Rahul8217;s in a role that he is playing fantastically well. So,we have been unfortunate in that we have had to chase 180 and 170 in the last two games. We shouldn8217;t probably have had to chase those many. But then again,having said that we haven8217;t really helped ourselves in the first six-ten overs even in the batting department,8221; he said.

Pietersen,who is of South African origin but plays for England,said he was not much bothered about the crowd reaction.

8220;I have always enjoyed playing here in South Africa. And,unfortunately,there is always going to be a small part in the crowd who are going to boo. That is just something that I will have deal with,even on my last tour here in 2004-05. I am certainly not going to get any cheer when I come here at the end of the year to play four or five Test matches and seven one-day internationals,8221; he said.