RCB horror show continues

Bangalore’s batting line-up collapses for the third time in as many matches as team fails to chase 157

SYNOPSIS:

Miserly Pawan Negi strangulates Pune. But Bangalore fall like a pack of cards, dashing their playoff hopes for good nearly.

Miserly Negi strangulates Pune

Pawan Negi is by no means a prodigious turner of the cricket ball. Instead, he relies more on pin-point accuracy and subtle variations in pace to plot his dismissals. On Saturday, at the MCA Stadium in Pune, the left-arm spinner failed to hit the straps against the bevy of right-handers the Rising Pune Supergiant have at their disposal.

Introduced into the attack after Powerplay, Negi erred in line against the rampant Rahul Tripathi and captain Steven Smith. Consequently, Negi would get milked for some easy runs in his opening over. While a big shot did not come Pune's way, they nevertheless kept collecting runs in a steady sequence of ones and twos. The 24-year-old finally got his act together in the second delivery of his following over. Bowled a tad quicker to Tripathi, the delivery also dipped a wee bit and held its line. The Pune opener, looked to slash it past the point region. However, he did not get the requisite width to play the shot. In the end, all he managed to do was to edge it to the wicket-keeper's gloves. Tripathi perished for 37, and frittered away yet another glorious opportunity after promising so much more. Negi would not add any more to his wickets column, but Tripathi's scalp spurred him to bowl flat out and strangulate Pune's batsmen in the middle overs. In the subsequent two overs, he would give only four runs, indicative of the kind of control he exerted on the proceedings. Negi would finish with figures of 4-018-1. In doing so, he equalled his most economical spell in IPL, having finished with 18 runs on two previous occasions in the past. First, against the Rajasthan Royals in 2012, then against the KKR in 2015. Yet another standout feature was the 12 dot balls he bowled in his four-over burst.

A total of 157 is a score Bangalore captain Virat Kohli would have settled for at the halfway stage. Pune, however, were buoyed by the fact that Bangalore had failed miserably with the bat in their two previous games. In fact, the lowest total successfully defended at the IPL this year was 131 by the KKR when they had shot out Bangalore for 49, their lowest total in this competition.

Falling like a pack of cards

The match against KKR last week summed up RCB'S disastrous campaign this season. Chasing 131, Kohli's men were dismissed for 49. Three nights later, they would fold for a score of 100 against the Gujarat Lions. For the first time in IPL history, Bangalore were bowled out in two consecutive games. The moment a side gets shot out for 49 in a T20 game, it's difficult to pick the pieces and get your act together in subsequent games. Their captain was weary and looked around haplessly for that spark of inspiration. That one act of individual brilliance, which would galvanise his side's sagging spirits. That moment evaporated, tonight, when AB de Villiers, was caught at short cover by Manoj Tiwary early on in their chase. During Bangalore's irresistible run last year, it was the Protea who had given them the much needed thrust with his insouciant display of batsmanship at the top of the order. However, scores of 8, 5 and 3 in his last three games just summed up their travails this year.

Following de Villiers' exit, the rest of the batting just wilted, without an ounce of fight. Barring Kohli's valiant half century, no one had even managed to even register a double digit score. RCB ended at 96/9 — their playoff hopes dashed, and their confidence dented.

"I think it's for everyone to see we lost that game. It's hard for a captain to stand here and speak after a performance like this. But got to learn and move on from these kind of experiences. We lost the game rather than them winning it. We are pretty much not in the race for the Playoffs, all we can do is enjoy the four remaining games," was how Kohli put it after the loss.