Bengaluru, May 26: After coming tantalisingly close to winning the Indian Premier League, the defeat continues to haunt the Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Anil Kumble. Two day after losing to the Deccan Chargers in Johannesburg, Kumble and Co. arrived in the city on Tuesday and the former India captain clearly still has to come to terms with the defeat.

"The loss (in the final) is difficult to digest. Even after two days, it is tough to accept that we lost," a disappointed Kumble said. "It was a great opportunity and we ended up losing it. It might be easy for the players who are still playing competitive cricket, they can pick up and carry on, but it hurts that we lost," he added.

Things weren’t going great for Bangalore before Kumble took over after Kevin Pietersen left for national duty. The Bengaluru veteran led from the front with his bowling. He tallied 22 wickets in the tournament, and bowled his heart out in the final with a man of the match 4/16 in the final.

Kumble pointed to two matches that proved to be the turning point for his team’s fortunes. "The first match against the Knight Riders at Durban and Pietersen’s last game, was what gave us the impetus. From there we picked up.

"There was a time when we had to win almost everything match we played and Ross Taylor’s unbeaten 81 against the Knight Riders in the return game was simply superb.

"It is the best knock I have seen in any format of the game," he observed.

On the reasons behind opening the bowling in the final, Kumble said: "I had done it earlier and we knew that if Gilly got going, it would be tough for us. I had to take a chance and took on the responsibility and decided to lead from the front.

"And that ploy worked for us, but unfortunately we could not finish off the match in our favour."