Sourav SinhaThe Sunrisers follow the KKR script to lose against RCB

15April

The Sunrisers follow the KKR script to lose against RCB

A day back KKR won the toss decided to field first and had the match in the bag to blow it spectacularly in the final 5 overs. Well, we are told that learn from our mistakes – better still learn from others’ mistakes. In that perspective, SRH should have known the difficulty in chasing in Chennai but they still decided to chase. And the game followed in the exact template of the other day. They had to chase 150 to win and till the 13th over the match was firmly in SRH’s grasp when Warner got out. And from there the match turned on its head and RCB won the match by 6 runs.

SRH has a weak middle order or May I say an inexperienced one and it lay completely exposed yesterday!

So what were the hits and misses from yesterday’s match at Chepauk?

Hits:

The last half-century hit by Glenn Maxwell in IPL was way back in 2014. He has been a failure in IPL and though teams have been paying big bucks to acquire the services he always failed to deceive. Finally, Glenn Maxwell got his mojo back and RCB will hope that he keeps up with his good form in this edition. A half-century on such a slow track was a commendable effort where most of the batsmen struggled to get going.
Jason Holder replaced an indisposed MD. Nabi and he performed admirably. He picked up the important wickets of Kohli and Maxwell and finished with 3/30. Sunrisers would have hoped that he would come good with the bat too but that didn’t happen though!
Rashid Khan is a superstar. His 4 overs are like a fixed deposit for David Warner and I was looking forward to how Virat Kohli plays him. Though he didn’t get the wicket of Kohli, he did enough damage to stifle RCB with his mastery. 2/18 in 4 overs showed how far ahead he is from the other leg spinners in the competition. He is a very good batter too and he hit some lusty blows towards the end to bring SRH to the brink. If he would have been there till the end then I am sure SRH would have scraped through.
David Warner has the maximum number of half-centuries in IPL history. Till the time he was there in the crease, it looked like a walk in the park for SRH. His wicket changed the scenario and proved how important he is to this SRH setup. He along with Maxwell looked like playing on a different surface altogether.
Right at the time of the toss, Virat Kohli declared that Shahbaz Ahmed would be batting at number 3. I have been following Shahbaz’s growth in domestic cricket and I was not surprised with that decision. He is a genuine all-rounder and a superb fielder to boot. Though he scored only 14 runs with the bat, it was with the ball that he weaved magic in the 17th over. Rarely do you see a spinner bowling at the death but Virat Kohli showed confidence in Shahbaz and he repaid the faith by picking up 3 wickets in one over giving away only one run. In the space of 6 balls, the match turned on its head.
RCB needed a good start with the ball because they were defending a low score of 149 runs. MD. Siraj started with a bang by bowling a maiden over and then returned in the second over to pick up the wicket of Wridhiman Saha. After his first spell of two overs, his figures read 1/1. He later came back at the death to pick up the wicket of Jason Holder.
Harshal Patel was the surprise package in the first match, picking up 5 wickets. He has been earmarked as RCB’s death bowler and he gave another good performance yesterday. Though he bowled a couple of no-balls he was still able to return figures of 2/25 to snatch the purple cap back from Andre Russell.

The Misses:

Virat Kohli scored 33 off 29 balls which is exactly what he scored in the match against Mumbai Indians. This is not the free-flowing Kohli that we are so used to seeing. He is unable to hit balls over the top consistently and getting out after being set. In T20s, you can take your time to get your eye in if you are an opener but you need to up the ante at the later stages because if you fail to do so, invariably your middle order gets under run rate pressure which leads to their failure. I am looking forward to Virat’s turnaround in the next few matches.
Manish Pandey for the second match in a row failed to convert his start into a significant match-winning score. A year back, he was part of India’s playing XI but now he is out of the team and one of the major reasons for that is his inability to score at a fast pace. For Sunrisers it’s a big problem because they have an inexperienced middle order so Manish has to play well and score at a fast clip otherwise the team will struggle.
Yuzvendra Chahal is a pale shadow of his usual self for the last few months. He made a significant contribution in India’s T20 win in Australia but has been struggling since. He was always Kohli’s go-to man in the previous years, but it’s no longer the same because he is unable to pick up wickets. With Adam Zampa available from the next match, I expect Chahal to be dropped from the playing XI of RCB soon if he doesn’t come up with a big performance in the next match.
Vijay Shanker was being groomed as India’s backup player for Hardik Pandya but he has not been able to hold on to that promise. I doubt he will get selected in the next match because SRH needs to think differently about their middle order from the next match.

What to look forward to?

RCB seems to have got their combination right and with so many bowling options at his disposal, RCB is currently looking like a complete team. I still have doubts about Christian & Chahal but right now others are contributing and most importantly the team is winning so I do not foresee any changes in the next match.

For Sunrisers, they need to get Kane Williamson in the playing XI. He is one player who can make a huge difference to their playing XI. This obviously means that Bairstow has to sit out but the stability that Kane provides is worth in gold. I will also suggest having Kedar Jhadav in the playing XI replacing Vijay Shankar.