IPL 2020: Match 6: KingsXI Punjab Vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore

Kings XI Punjab snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in their last match. On the other side, Royal Challengers Bangalore won their inaugural match in IPL after many years. They were hoping to make it 2 in a row which last happened to them way back in 2009. This is the pretext in which RCB met KXIP in Dubai yesterday.

Here are my high points from yesterday’s game.

1. Rahul: Naam toh Suna Hoga

When KL Rahul first burst into the international scene he was a copybook batsman just like his mentor Rahul Dravid. He in fact scored a century too in his very first series against Australia in Australia. He was straightaway branded as a Test Specialist. But consistency eluded him. His career was going nowhere and then he decided to enhance his keeping skills. This ensured that he replaced Dhoni as India’s number one keeper in limited-overs cricket especially with Rishabh Pant unable to convert his talent into runs. In 2019, he kept for all the matches in IPL and this followed in the international arena too. Is Rahul India’s answer to Adam Gilchrist? Only time will say but a copybook cricketer transforming himself into an aggressive opening batsman is a story by itself. Though he has lost his place in the Indian test team – I think his class of play can’t be kept out for long.

Yesterday other than the two umpires, Rahul was the only person who was in the field for the entire duration of the match. First, he carried his bat through the innings and then kept for the entire duration of the RCB chase. This is no mean feat considering the heat in Dubai.

The boundaries that he hit on the offside were class apart. He is one of the best cover drivers in world cricket.  Rahul is an aggressive player but he knows how to build an innings. He didn’t go after the bowlers right at the start. He got his eye in but didn’t let the bowlers dictate to him. He ensured that the run rate was always above 8 per over in the power play. 

Yesterday’s game was all about KL Rahul. Because he built his innings so meticulously – it ensured that in the end, he became unstoppable. The last 2 overs yielded about 50 runs for KXIP and it was only possible due to Rahul’s heroics. He took apart Dale Steyn and cut him a sorry figure at the end.

Rahul hit 21 boundaries (14 fours and 7 sixes) and that’s an average of one boundary per over. It was a brutal innings at the end.

In the process, he surpassed Sachin Tendulkar’s long-standing IPL record of being the quickest Indian to 2000 runs in IPL history.

Rahul finished with 132 runs which incidentally is now the highest individual score by an Indian in IPL history.

Incidentally, RCB as a team lost the match by 23 runs to Rahul. The gap was this big yesterday.

2. Virat Kohli dropping sitters

Kohli is an aggressive individual and believes in a high-performance culture. He himself raises the bar when it comes to anything related to cricket in the field. He always leads by example and demands the best from his players. So it was quite strange to see him drop 2 absolute sitters yesterday. And guess what both the catches he spilled was of Rahul and it was before he reached his century. In the final analysis, these 2 catches might not look like a difference but you never know what would have happened if Kings XI ended up scoring less then 180. So according to me, these 2 catches did have an effect on how RCB fared when they batted because they lost momentum towards the end and they were mentally exhausted.

3. Dale Steyn

If there is one fast bowler whom I loved to watch it was Dale Steyn. His lucid action, speed, aggression was inspiring. That he was the number one bowler in the world during his hay days was not a surprise. Unfortunately, Dale Steyn could never replicate that type of form on a consistent basis in IPL. I was a bit surprised that RCB relied on him to carry the load of pace bowling this year especially with having Umesh Yadav in their ranks who himself is an inconsistent performer when it comes to limited-overs cricket. Dale Steyn cut a sorry figure yesterday going for 57 runs in his 4 overs. I doubt if we will see him in the next match. But does RCB has a readymade replacement? It was really sad to see how one of the best bowlers in the world ever getting hammered to submission. He was a pale shadow of himself. I hope Dale Steyn will show some spark before the tournament ends.

4. Horror start 

When you start a chase and especially if it’s a big one then what you need is a very good start in the power play. But what happened yesterday was just the opposite. Both Cotrell and Shami were in top form and before we could blink the eye RCB was reeling at 4/3 with Devdutt, Philippe, and Kohli back in the hut. The chase fizzled out even before it could start and what ensured after that was mere formalities.

5. Ravi Bishnoi

I first saw Ravi Bishnoi in the last U-19 World Cup which happened earlier this year. Though India lost in the finals to Bangladesh two players stood out. One was Jaiswal who ended up being the highest scorer of the tournament and the other one was Bishnoi who ended up being the highest wicket-taker. It was no surprise that Bishnoi was drafted in the first XI and he did his reputation no harm in the first match. He came back even stronger yesterday and picked up 3 wickets. A wrist spinner is always great to watch. He is young and he is aggressive and I hope with the guidance of Anil Kumble we will see a better Bishnoi ready for International cricket. He is still primarily a googly bowler and he needs to get his leg-spin equally effective for him to become a consistent performer at the world stage.

It turned out to be two days in a row where we had a one-sided contest. This is not good for the tournament where the teams are pretty equally matched. 

So what do you think would be the future course of action for RCB to get their bowling sorted? 

Do let me know your thoughts?

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