RCB aims to step up against high-flying Sunrisers
BENGALURU: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL campaign that began in cheerfulness has melted into chaos, and its bowlers require a drastic transformation in mindset against Sunrisers Hyderabad for them to register an elusive win on Monday.
The Royal Challengers have players of repute and elite coaches with lofty pedigree but none of its plans have worked so far, evidenced by the team’s 10th place in the standings with a solitary win from six matches.
The RCB’s trundling run in this IPL is directly linked to its bowlers’ ineffectiveness.
They showed a distinct lack of willingness to adapt and upskill on conditions that needed a different thinking.
In this IPL, the bowlers have often relied on variations like knuckle balls, slow bouncers and pace-off deliveries to counter a set of ultra-aggressive batsmen.
However, the Bengaluru bowlers have been largely unidimensional in its approach allowing batters to tackle them with ease and the match against Mumbai Indians offers a case study.
For once, the RCB batters fired collectively to take them to 196, but MI hunted down the target in just 15.3 overs at the Wankhede Stadium as the visiting bowlers was quite magnanimous in offering freebies.
Two Hyderabad batters – Heinrich Klaasen (186) and Abhishek Sharma (177) – are inside the top-10 run-makers and Travis Head (133) too has been consistent. Similar to RCB, bowling has been Hyderabad’s soft underbelly in this tournament with spinners Shahabaz Ahmed and Mayank
Markande giving away more than 11 runs in an over with minimal returns.
But the Hyderabad outfit has found a saviour in skipper Pat Cummins, their highest wicket-taker with six scalps and he has also conceded just over seven runs an over, a very respectable economy rate in this format.
Additionally, Cummins has also shown the flexibility to operate at various junctures of a match – with the new ball in the Power Play or bowling as second-change in the middle and death overs.
The inclusion of left-arm pacer T Natarajan (5 wickets, economy: 8.6) has given their bowling a new dimension and a bit more control in the last three matches.