I still have a feeling that this strange year will turn out to be RCB’s year

Momentum can be a fickle friend. Just when you think you have it and everything is going your way… it can suddenly desert you and leave you floundering.

On Wednesday 21 October, in match 39, Royal Challengers Bangalore restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 84 for 8 and eased to an eight-wicket win with 39 balls to spare. Our seventh win in 10 matches took us to the brink of qualification for the playoffs. All seemed well.

“RCB have a good thing going this year,” said a friend in another team, looking enviously at the points table.

Momentum seemed to be with us, at our side, riding the wave.

Four league matches remained… then we lost to Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets with eight balls left, then we lost to Mumbai Indians by five wickets with five balls left, then we lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets with 35 balls left and, on Monday, we lost to Delhi Capitals by six wickets with six balls left. Four times, we had batted first… four times, we had lost.

Momentum had fled, and we scrambled over the line, eventually securing a place in the playoffs because of a fractionally better net run rate. Now, after four consecutive defeats, can we regain momentum… can we win the three matches that stand between us and a first IPL title?

Of course, we can.

In a tournament like the IPL, where any team can beat any team on any given day, the margins between winning and losing are often perilously thin. When things go wrong, the temptation can be to make wholesale changes; in most cases, it is better to stick to the same basic plan and maybe make a few tweaks.

We need to be positive, brave and bold, to seize this opportunity and to approach these matches in the knowledge there will be no second chance. We need to bring joy to our hundreds of thousands of supporters at home in Bengaluru and around the world, watching from home, gathered as families, many of them facing up to the fear and uncertainty caused by the global pandemic.

We need to please our own families, who we have not seen for almost three months, but who are urging us to perform under pressure and prevail.

Let’s see. I still have a feeling that this strange year will turn out to be RCB’s year. (TCM)