It was a disappointing performance for Royal Challengers Bangalore as the Faf Du Plessis-led side were comprehensively defeated by Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL 2024 match on Friday. Virat Kohli looked in great form as he racked up his second consecutive half-century in the league, but it wasn’t enough. The bowling performance was sub-optimal as the fast bowlers were taken to the cleaners by Sunil Narine and Venkatesh Iyer, who won the match for their side. Former England skipper Michael Vaughan had a searing assessment of RCB after their second loss of IPL 2024.
“Impossible for @RCBTweets to win the IPL with this bowling attack,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Impossible for @RCBTweets to win the IPL with this bowling attack.. #OnOn #IPL2024live
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) March 29, 2024
Three matches may be too small a sample size to form an opinion, but given the lack of variety seen in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s bowling attack, they may be staring at a long, tiring IPL season this year.
The match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday offered the latest and biggest footprint of this particular weakness as the RCB bowlers failed to control a string of free hitters while defending 183.
The immediate defense will consist of projecting the presence of dew and an improved M Chinnaswamy delivery during the second innings. But a deep dive will reveal a different picture.
Defending a total, even a competitive total like 183, requires a tight start, but the RCB bowlers were loose.
Mohammed Siraj’s length ball was hit over mid-wicket by Phil Salt for a six, and the Englishman had two more juicy offerings on the fifth stump, each carried for a six and four. The first over produced 18 runs.
Alzarri Joseph was introduced in the third over. But the pacer gave Sunil Narine a length ball on leg stump, which was sent for a six over long-on and two balls later a short delivery was sent in the same direction for a maximum.
These are the balls that are penalized at this level: dew or no dew, whether it is an easy or a difficult ball.
There was an exception in Vysakh Vijayakumar, who successfully used knuckleballs and pace-off deliveries to return with excellent figures of 1/23, but the more experienced names were reluctant to bring in those variations – at least consistently.
“The second innings was a bit better to bat as the ball came on the bat a bit quicker due to the dew. I tried to use hard length balls and short balls hit into the field to stop batters,” Vijaykumar said in the match. press conference after the match.
“But it was still gripping from both sides. We tried to mix it up, but they (KKR hitters) got away with it.” There is some truth in his words. The statistics show that KKR bowlers used 22 balls under 120 kmph and conceded just 20 runs to pick up three wickets.
Meanwhile, the RCB bowlers bowled 19 balls under 120 km per hour but gave away 40 runs and could bag only one wicket.
(With PTI inputs)
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