Poor batting hurt Kolkata Knight Riders badly once again on Wednesday. After the hammering in Sharjah, they got another pasting from Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Virat Kohli-led franchise cantered to an eight-wicket win with as many as 39 balls to spare at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

Courtesy this victory, set up by pacer Mohammed Siraj (4-2-8-3), RCB leapfrogged Mumbai Indians to No. 2 in the standings with 14 points, inching closer to their first play-offs berth since finishing runners-up in 2016.

As for KKR, playing without both Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, they remain at No. 4 in spite of being at the receiving end of another one-sided affair. But their batsmen need to mend their ways or else there could be further humiliation in store going forward.

KKR’s total of 84 for eight, after opting to bat first, turned out to be the lowest by an IPL side batting the full quota of 20 overs and not losing all 10 wickets. If not for captain Eoin Morgan’s 30, there was every possibility of them being shot out for less than 49, which incidentally was the ignominy RCB suffered against KKR back in 2017 at the Eden.

Since they have defended totals well previously, it won’t be fair to call Morgan’s decision to bat first after winning the toss wrong. Little did he know that his top-order batsmen would make such a mess and surrender tamely to Siraj, who made fine use of whatever assistance was on offer from the pitch. At one stage, Siraj had unbelievable figures of 2-2-0-3. KKR were 3 for three in the third over and 17 for four at the end of the Powerplay.

Siraj, becoming the first to bowl two back-to-back maiden overs in an IPL match, well and truly deserves accolades for his Test-match like bowling and credit must be given to RCB skipper Virat Kohli for backing the Hyderabad pacer and giving him the new ball. That said, the application and technique of Siraj’s victims — Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana and Tom Banton, whom KKR mentor David Hussey had referred to as the “new Kevin Pietersen” before this edition began — was below par to say the least.

Even Shubman Gill’s form is a concern now. At 3 for two, KKR needed a circumspect Shubman, but he played a reckless shot to throw it away.

Former skipper Dinesh Karthik had an opportunity to make an impact, but he too botched it up.

Precisely, almost all the RCB bowlers, except Isuru Udana who bowled just one over, had a field day as KKR batsmen could manage only six boundaries and two sixes.

One may argue Morgan missed a trick in not bowling Lockie Ferguson in tandem with Pat Cummins when RCB began their run chase. But if your team sets such an easy target to the opposition, there’s little your captain can do.