Following yet another lackluster batting display that resulted in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s fourth loss in five games, head coach Andy Flower acknowledged that his team was short on runs on a Jaipur surface that improved with dew. The majority of the scoring was done by their former captain, Virat Kohli, as none of the other RCB batsmen showed up on a night when he scored yet another IPL century.
After registering 183 runs on the board, RCB saw RR easily catch up, thanks to centuries from Jos Buttler and a fifty from captain Sanju Samson.
Flower focused on the batting department’s lack of intent and gave a brutally honest evaluation of the situation.
At the press conference following the game, Flower stated, “We do discuss strike rates and aggression; it’s part of the understanding of the T20 game.”
“You have to consistently apply pressure to the opposition and the degree of aggression must be over a particular threshold. Choosing the aggressive route is definitely advised, particularly on pitches like this one. It’s a fact that, with the exception of Virat, none of our top five players are now playing at their best. It is not an easy place to be. It’s not for want of effort; they’re putting in a lot of effort and working hard. Simply not shooting at this time. We must fire them if we want to turn things around.”
The only notable performance of the day was Kohli’s century, which also happens to be the joint-slowest IPL century ever. However, captain Faf du Plessis did offer a fair critique of his own. With the opening stand of a century, RCB seemed set to score more than 190 runs, maybe even 200. But once the alliance fell apart, RR used the left-arm pace of Nandre Burger in combination with their spin combo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin to put pressure on the opposition. In the first half, the surface did provide something for the slower bowlers, and RR’s assault took full use of it.
Although RR’s chase was made much easier by the subsequent dew, RCB had started the second half strongly when Yashasvi Jaiswal fell to Reece Topley in the opening over of the chase. The track’s two-paced aspect, which was occasionally noticeable in the first innings, did persist until the beginning of the chase, but RR handled that stage admirably. Dew is a constant in Indian circumstances, hence RCB most likely required a cushion of fifteen to twenty extra runs to stay in the game. Flower bemoaned the subpar conclusion of the inning following the opening stand’s base.
Given the base we had, we were roughly 107/0 in the 12th over, so we should have gotten up to 200 being in that position on a decent pitch, but we were a little light (on runs), in my opinion. However, Topley and Yash got us off to a strong start with the ball, and Siraj played outstandingly up front, but the final over of the powerplay cost us a lot of momentum.”
RCB’s prospects of making the playoffs currently appear bleak, as they have only managed two points from five games. The pace at which other teams’ hitters are playing indicates that Bangalore will soon enter the fray. Because of the impact player rule, hitters are now even more daring and can play brave cricket right away. One notable instance of this is the fact that, in the course of a week, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders both surpassed the highest-ever IPL total, which was established by Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2013. Flower is aware that in order to get out of this mess, his team must get their act together as soon as possible.
“No side wants to be in our position—we’re one out of five. Yes, there are certain problems with our batting. While Virat is in incredible form, the other men are having trouble with confidence and form. We are exerting every effort to instill a sense of strength and self-assurance in them. The competition has demonstrated that team scores and hostility are only heading in one direction. In order to put pressure on the opposition, the lads must have all of their form and confidence. That form hasn’t been discovered yet.”
When asked to assess the loss during the presentation ceremony, skipper Faf du Plessis expressed similar feelings. Despite scoring 44 off 33 balls, the South African’s fluidity was lacking during the innings. After he was gone, the other batsmen were unable to adjust to the surface’s characteristics, so Kohli had to do everything. The captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore thought that the two innings’ batting conditions differed significantly.
“We discovered the wicket was difficult and low in the first innings when out there batting with Virat tonight. When we were batting, we thought that 190 would be a good score. I did think that we could have capitalized on ten or fifteen more runs in the final over or two,” Faf remarked.
However, judging from the way their spinners bowled in the middle, it was difficult to strike because the ball stayed rather low. They made a wise choice to pursue it, as you could see by the way it behaved much better in the evening with the dew. However, you feel that you could have pushed a little bit harder and passed the 190–195 barrier in retrospect.”
