On paper, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s firepower looks quite intimidating. Somehow this is once again not translating into results as shown by the early matches of IPL 2024.
RCB’s campaign has had a very bad start. Saturday’s defeat against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur was their fourth defeat in five matches, dropping them to ninth place. IPL Mark sheet. They remain there, tied on two points each with Mumbai Indians – they finished eighth after winning their first game on Sunday – and Delhi Capitals, who are in last place.
To save their season, RCB desperately needs to rethink their approach. The T20 format is changing almost every match, but are their players adapting to it?
T-20 is a great team game today. on Saturday, Virat Kohli Was left to play the role of lone ranger against the Royals. He scored unbeaten 113 runs off 72 balls (12×4, 4×6) but RCB could only score 183/3 runs in 20 overs. Jos Buttler’s unbeaten 100 off 58 balls after a 148-run partnership with Sanju Samson (69-42b) helped RR win easily, crossing the target in 19.1 overs.
This was a tremendous effort from RCB’s star batsman. Kohli has been in great form, but when he bats big, does he have the extra gear to take the game out of the opposition’s reach?
On Saturday, Butler surpassed Kohli’s century. Last season, in the last league match of RCB, Shubman Gill had defeated him. At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, when Kohli’s knock of 101 off 61 balls had helped RCB reach a total of 197/5, Gill came out and smashed an unbeaten 104 off 52 balls to help the Titans take six wickets. Be successful. Win and end RCB’s chances of making it to the play-offs.
Kohli has been the most consistent batsman of the tournament, leading the scoring charts with 316 runs (average 105.33, S/R 146.30). Playing with intent, he is scoring runs but is not a power-hitter and needs support from the big-hitters in the line-up. In the absence of lower-order hitting, RCB have not been able to get value from Kohli’s prolific run-scoring.
Another aspect highlighted the contradiction between the innings of RCB and Royals. The powerplay overs had a similar start, but Royals had the potential to take it further as the innings progressed. At the score of 10 overs, RCB were 88/0 and Royals were 95/1. At the score of 15 overs, RCB reached 129/2 while the home team reached 152/2.
Former India batsman Virender Sehwag said that Kohli lacked support, while also pointing out that he was not able to accelerate.
“I thought RCB scored around 20 runs less. Regarding Virat Kohli, his innings was brilliant, but there was no one to support him. Dinesh Karthik didn’t come (to bat before Cameron Green), so there were no big hitters to support him and those who came didn’t do the job. Yes, Kohli’s strike rate should definitely have increased because when you score 50 runs in 39 balls, after that you score runs at a fast pace. Then the strike rate automatically reaches near 200. He definitely made a mistake there,” Sehwag said in his show on Cricbuzz.
RCB captain Faf du Plessis admitted this while talking to the official broadcaster, Star Sports. I thought we could have scored at most 10 or 15 more runs by the end,” he said.
middle disturbance
The reason for RCB’s struggle has been the poor performance of their middle-order batsmen. Explosive Glenn Maxwell and Green have failed to make a splash so far and classy Rajat Patidar has also not come to the party.
In five matches, Maxwell has scored 32 runs at a strike rate of 106.66 with a highest score of 28; Green has scored 68 runs (S/R 107.93) and Patidar has scored 50 (S/R 108.69) in four innings.
RCB coach Andy Flower blamed the batting for the poor performance. “We are one in five and that’s not a situation any team wants to be in. Yes, we have some problems with our batting. We’ve got Virat in great form but the other players are struggling for form and confidence. We’re trying to do everything we can to make them feel strong.
“As you have seen in this competition, the scoring and aggression of the teams is only going in one direction. Therefore, players need to be in full form and confidence to keep the opposition team under pressure. We haven’t received that form yet,” Flowers said.
bowling crisis
If the bowlers carry on, a score of 183 could still be a winning score. Unfortunately, RCB’s bowling unit was also not successful. The leader of their attack Mohammed Siraj has been inconsistent. He has taken four wickets in five matches at an economy rate of 10.10.
Their other main fast bowler, Yash Dayal, has taken five wickets in five matches at an economy of 8.31, while Green has also been expensive (ER 9.40). Key spinner Mayank Dagar is being dismissed easily by the batsmen (ER 10.14).
Will RCB end their IPL title drought this time, is a question that arises with the start of every edition. Can they change the familiar narrative this time?
