IPL 2021 | RCB vs KKR: What Experts said as Knight Riders rip open worst of Royal Challengers

All the momentum of the first half of the tournament has disappeared and the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore were shown a glimpse of their haunting past by the Kolkata Knight Riders on their first outing in the second half of the Indian Premier League 2021. 

Apart from winning the toss which is quite a rare phenomenon for Virat Kohli, nothing worked for him and his side they slipped to 92 all out which the Knight Riders achieved with ridiculous ease.

All the superstars of the batting order such as the skipper himself, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell failed terribly and the young players could not soak up the pressure to guide the team towards some sort of respectability. AB de Villiers went on a first-ball duck while Maxwell was tied down by incredible bowling variations of Varun Chakarvararhty.

Captain’s viewpoints

The RCB skipper Kohli rued not having any partnership with the bat and urged his batting mates to treat this batting collapse where they slipped from a stable position of 41/1 to 66/7 to get out of the game as a “wake-up call”, that they could improve on in their approach.

"Was important to get a good partnership. We didn't expect that much dew to kick in that early. From 42 for 1, we lost 5 wickets for 20-odd. Bit of a wake-up call might as well have this at the start of the second leg so that we know what we should work on,” Kohli said in the post-match presentation.

He also urged his team to be at the top of their game all the time as their opponents will always be on the lookout for their weaknesses. He said that recognizing the mistake and correcting it quickly will enable the opposition to run through them quickly.

You can make the argument that we were rusty but as professionals, you're expected to turn up and adjust. Sometimes it can take you a game, I hope not two, to get into the tournament, you have to stay with the eight-ball, if you're not, the other teams will be all over you,” Kohli urged his teammates to ward off complacency.

Kohli also lauded Varun Chakravarthy, who put up a Man of the Match performance in the first game of the IPL after earning a big call up to the India squad for the T20 World Cup. He banked on Chakarvarthy’s bowling as a “key factor” for the men in blue in the T20 World Cup and said that his success is a great sign for the national team in the near future.

“Pretty good from Varun, he's going to be a key factor when he plays for India. It's great guys who've got the opportunity to play at the international level. He's someone who is going to play in the near future for India, it's a great sign,” Kohli showered praise on Varun.

Albeit he reminded his teammates of not having too many affordable off days, he refused to be so harsh on them and outlined the five wins out of the eight games played this season. He put his “absolute confidence” in them to recover quickly from this debacle and script a swift turnaround from the next game.

“We have five win from eight, we expect a loss here and there, it's part and parcel, need to be professional, stick to our strengths and execute our plans. We have absolute confidence in our squad to pull up next game onwards and put in strong performances,” Kohli concluded.

On the other hand, the winning captain Eoin Morgan turned everything they touched into gold and he conceded that the win over the Royal Challengers was one of their best team performances in recent time.

The Knight Riders made light work of the 93 runs target but Morgan ruled out the possibility of the pitch becoming better in the second half of the game. He outlined that the RCB too had a great start and only the big wickets of Maxwell and Ab de Villiers towards the end of the powerplay shifted the momentum in KKR’s favour.

"Very rarely do you perform as well as we have today. The talent we have within our squad, it counts for nothing, you have to still go out and show how strong you are and we did today. I didn't think the wicket changed a great deal, RCB started well, but taking a wicket at the backend of the PP changed things for us. Collectively, we took valuable wickets. Maxwell, AB, Virat - we managed to get on top of all of them, it's very rare as well,” Morgan said.

Morgan relished the big win over the RCB but conceded that they are still way behind the curve and need a lot of things to go their way in the coming days to get past the first round. 

However, he reiterated that the team management including the coach Brendon McCullum is not going to put a lot of pressure on the players that may compel them to play defensively. 

As a group, with the expressive nature with which the guys play, playing under me or Baz, should be an absolute treat. We're not going to knock people for playing their shots. We have a long way to go, need a lot of things to go right. Today's the right start, need that run of confidence. We haven't turned up for the majority of the tournament, but today was a great start,” Morgan concluded.

Experts’ take

Former Indian opener and now a prominent cricket analyst Aakash Chopra was not worried about RCB’s loss and termed it as one of the “off days”. Instead, he was critical of losing in a manner such as against the KKR that could hurt their net run rate and subsequently may also hurt their chances of making it into the final four.

On the other hand, he was highly appreciative of the KKR for taking the challenge head-on while all factors were not in their favour. He highlighted their struggle in the first part of the tournament that forced them to number seven on the points table and their first four games of the second half were scheduled against the in-form sides. 

He said that the Morgan-led Knight Riders had their tasks cut out before the start of the UAE leg of the tournament but the men in purple and gold passed the first test against the RCB with flying colours.

Earlier, when Maxwell was new to the crease and struggling to time the ball, he had suggested that Morgan should bring the spinner Chakarvarathy against the right-hander. Morgan had the same idea and the spinner castled him with a delivery he could barely understand where it was heading to.

Fondly known as the “voice of Indian cricket”, Harsha Bhogle was too highly appreciative of Varun Chakravarthy and had some words for him after the dismissal of Maxwell. He expressed his awe for his attitude of not celebrating taking big wickets and instead treats them as part of his job being a bowler.

He also sympathised with RCB’s fans after their worst day in the field in this season and called it part of “experience” being a fan of a highly erratic side.

Chasing a low score of 93, the KKR were up and running as Shubman Gill was batting fluently while the debutant Venkateshwar Iyer never looked out of place and was afraid of the stage. Bhogle commended Iyer for playing fearless cricket and Gill for batting with fluency after returning from an injury.

The RCB should treat this game as an off day in the office but as Kohli reminded his batsmen, they should take this collapse as a “wake-up call” before the issue becomes perennial for them at the business end of the tournament.

For the Knight Riders, the win would taste sweet as it came on the back of strong team performance but the team can’t go too far ahead of themselves as there are a lot of things to conquer if they have to stand a chance to make it to the final four.