A valiant fifty from captain Steve Smith and an aggressive start by Robin Uthappa could not prevent the Rajasthan Royals from slipping away with another loss in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League. The Royal Challengers Bangalore came out as the winners on the back of an unbeaten partnership between AB de Villiers and Gurkeerat Singh Mann.
Here we decipher the performances that tilted the balance in the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s favour and took away all the advantage from the Rajasthan Royals.
There are not too many players better than AB de Villiers to be on the pitch with the bat in hand when your team needs 35 runs from the last 12 balls. He was not to disappoint the fans as he exploded to showcase his range of ferocious shots and clobbered the Royals out of the game.
De Villiers had come into bat when Devdutt Padikkal got out on the last ball of the 13th over and the team was in a precarious situation, needing more than 12 runs an over for the next seven overs to come. To add to it, he was put under immense pressure by the departure of Virat Kohli on the very next ball, after he was caught via an incredible effort from Rahul Tewatia in the deep mid-wicket. And it was left for de Villiers to take centre stage and fire all his cylinders if RCB were to take the two points from this game.
The 19th over was the point that tipped the balance towards RCB when AB de Villiers when he took down Jaydev Unadkat for three consecutive sixes. Captain Steve Smith took a gamble off Unadkat and held back Jofra Archer for the last over and AB de Villiers showed great match awareness and made the most of Unadkat over and left too little to do from Jofra Archer’s over.
It was fitting for AB de Villiers to hit the best bowler in Rajasthan Royals’ camp - Jofra Archer for a six to seal the game and RCB has come back on the winning way after having a bad game against Kings XI Punjab in their last match.
The RCB management and Virat Kohli had waited for a long time for Chris Morris to debut in the IPL 2020 and the South African all-rounder put on performances match after match to prove the worthiness of a prolonged wait.
Chris Morris was on song from his first over and got better of all the overseas star batsmen in the RR line up. After giving away only three runs in his first over, he returned with his second over in the sixth over of the innings and accounted for Ben Stokes by beating him with pace.
Kohli has been very smart at using Morris’s prowess in the latter half of the innings and he brought Morris back in the 16th over and Morris did not disappoint his captain and scalped Jos Buttler who was beginning to cut loose on a short of a length delivery. By that time, he had broken the spine of the RR’s batting and also checked the momentum of the innings.
Coming back to bowl his fourth over in the final over of the innings, he made sure that the RR do not run away with a flurry of boundaries and pile on score more than the RCB could afford to choose by dismissing a well-set Steve Smith on the first and Jofra Archer on the last ball of the over.
Chris Morris is looking sharp with the ball and he is leading the Royal Challengers to a good position in the IPL 2020 and the distance the team will cover in this edition is highly reliant on the fortunes of Chris Morris.
Chahal has been in the RCB camp for a very long period of time now and captain Kohli backs him to produce match-winning performances regularly. He has been in terrific form in this edition and has taken wickets in the middle overs and at the same time check the flow of runs to provide control to Kohli.
The Rajasthan Royals were off to a blistering start and Kohli introduced him the eighth over in search of quick wickets to check Robin Uthappa from running away with the game. Chahal, like he has been doing for many matches for the RCB played tricks and the match was back in Bangalore's grasp.
He has the habit of luring batsmen with balls pitching outside off and he enticed Uthappa to go across the line over midwicket. Uthappa took the bet but could only manage a top edge.
He was alert to the nature of Sanju Samson’s batting and flighted the next delivery above his eye line right after getting hit for a six and induced a false shot and the Royals were dented after an impressive start.
Jaydev Unadkat is an IPL enigma and it should be known to his captains by now. He has been bought for outrageous prices in the previous editions but has not been able to replicate the promises that justify the lofty pricetags, especially when it matters.
With the RCB requiring 35 off the 12 balls, including the six of him, captain Smith took a punt on him to bowl the penultimate over and backed him to come good enough to give Archer something to bowl the 20th over.
Smith’s calculations went horribly wrong and Unadkat was smashed for three sixes in a row on the first three balls of the over and RCB were back in the game. It was not an unprecedented situation for a bowler against AB de Villiers but the choice of lengths left a lot to be desired on Unadkat’s part. He gambled on a slower ball on the first ball of the over knowing if de Villiers could pick, he could send him over the boundary line.
His misery was not finished there as he bowled waywardly to Gurkeet Singh as well and allowed him the room to cart the ball over the off side where not a lot of fielders were patrolling the boundary. Unadkat leaked 25 runs in that over and with that, the chance of Archer defending a mere 10 looked bleak and AB de Villiers stamped the end of Royals with a big six off Archer in the next over.
There was a wide range of expectations building up when Stokes had come back from New Zealand and the Rajasthan Royals looked stronger and a team with balanced firepower. Three matches into this season and Stokes has added a little to the Royals’ side and has not been able to translate the amount of hype his return has created into performance on the field.
Today, Robin Uthappa was batting at superb tempo and he had to make sure that the Royals capitalise on Uthappa’s resurgence but he looked rusty and was ultimately done in by Chris Morris.
To his defence, he has been asked to open the innings and bat with unfamiliar match situations but players like Stokes can be relied upon to adapt to different challenges thrown at them. It seems he does not enjoy batting at the top of the order but he will have to pull up his socks if the Royals have to even dare to make it into the playoffs of the IPL 2020.
Winning six out of the nine matches they have played this season, the RCB have looked like a side hungry for wins and have brought their A-game in tough situations while the Royals have slid further in the standings on the points table after another slip up on the field.
Powered by Froala Editor