IPL 2024: File photo of Virat KOhli© BCCI/IPL
The start of the IPL 2024 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru was uneventful, to say the least. The team has lost two of the three games and is the first team this edition not to lose a home game. The RCB side was strengthened by an unbeaten 83 from Kohli to score 182/6. But KKR reached the target with more than three overs to spare. Speaking on Star Sports, former England cricketer Stuart Broad spoke about the shortcomings of the RCB bowling line-up. “In such times you want to praise KKR, you know they have achieved a win in Bengaluru six visits in a row. You have to look at the RCB bowling too, just look at the KKR bowl cutters and slower balls and in the delivery, very difficult for one of the greatest batsmen ever, Virat Kohli, who could not time the ball consistently,” he said.
“And then they come on and bowl with a lot of pace, which went to the boundary, they bowled short and were predictable, but that’s their problem RCB, I think their batting has been strong for many years and they have star power there, but then their bowling unit seems unable to stand up and win matches. It looks like a slightly unbalanced team and in my personal opinion they have got their foreign players on track and sometimes it takes a humbling loss like this at home to sharpen your focus and make you realize how you should play.”
Broad spoke about the poor tactics of the RCB bowlers. “It was in the length that he hit and RCB should have followed that. They dropped much shorter or were in the slot with their slow balls. I think what Andre Russell did so well, it wasn’t necessarily hand work, it was just cutters , which went into the top of the stumps where the batters couldn’t adjust. And when you’re bowling with cutters, if you fall too short or too full, the batters can adjust, but if you go in the length where “If they can’t quite reach it, then it’s difficult and RCB just didn’t get their lengths right. Too short, too full with the slower balls and cutters and KKR punished them.”
Broad added: “If the team is batting first, you would normally expect to learn so much from the team that bowled first and take all that information and deliver it in the second innings. So they had all information about what KKR did like this.” Brilliant, but they have failed to put that into practice and transfer that skill. I think the RCB coaching staff and captain will be very disappointed with the execution of what they could have done.”
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