The match was killed in the death overs. For the Kolkata Knight Riders that is, who slumped to their second loss in three matches, going down by 38 runs against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai on Sunday.

RCB plundered 56 runs off the last three overs (70 off last five overs) of their innings to post 204/4 after winning the toss. Faced with a stiff target, the Knights sparked on and off like a faltering bulb during the chase to end on 166/8. Glenn Maxwell (78 off 49 balls) and AB de Villiers (76 not out off 34 balls) were the stars for RCB.

Virat Kohli’s RCB are perched right at the top of the league standings with an all-win record after three games.

Though it’s quite early in the season, it appears that the Knights tend to struggle if their top three fail to fire. On Sunday, Shubman Gill (21), Nitish Rana (18) and Rahul Tripathi (25) did not manage much and thereafter there seemed to be an evident element of panic in the Knights’ batting. But it shouldn’t be so with the likes of captain Eoin Morgan (29), former captain Dinesh Karthik (2), the gigantic Andre Russell (31) and internationally successful Shakib-al Hasan (26) making up their middle and lower middle order.

Coach Brendon McCullum and Morgan will need to trace the bug in that batting order soon or another unsuccessful season lies ahead.

Russell was guilty of wasting the entire 19th over. He searched wildly for the big hits, didn’t get them, played five dot balls, refusing singles to non-striker Harbhajan Singh, and finally took one only off the last ball. He was out first ball the next over. That’s almost criminal as net-run rates might play a decisive role at the end of the league stage.

Captain’s call

Morgan may be one of the best white-ball captains in the business currently, but he erred with his moves on Sunday.

First, he did not give Varun Chakravarthy a second over in the Powerplay despite the spinner snapping up the wickets of Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar in his very first over. That eased the pressure on RCB and allowed new man Glenn Maxwell to settle in. It is no secret that Maxwell is vulnerable early in his innings and gains confidence tremendously after he has played 20-odd balls. That’s poor homework in this data-driven age.

Morgan’s bigger error was not keeping his better bowlers of the day for the death overs. One feels Pat Cummins (1/34 in 4 overs) and Prasidh Krishna (1/31 in 4 overs) should have been used at the death with AB de Villiers at the crease. Instead, Russell and Harbhajan bowled from the 18th to 20th overs and RCB made merry.

For a captain who boasts winning percentages of 64.03 and 58.62 in ODIs and T20Is respectively and who has won the ODI World Cup with England and is considered favourite to clinch the T20 World Cup crown this year, Morgan needs to use his resources better.

Two to tango

Earlier, Maxwell and De Villiers wielded the bat like master swordsmen.

Maxwell, after a notoriously unsuccessful IPL stint last year with Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab), seems to have rediscovered himself in RCB colours. His innings, decorated with nine fours and three sixes, turned the match on its head after a jittery start for RCB. It seems the fact that he is not the most high-profile player in the team with Kohli and De Villiers around and that he has got a batting position (No.4) of his choice has helped him focus better on his job.

And what can one say about De Villiers… The 37-year-old has lost most of his hair but retains every bit of his craft. His reflexes are second to none, his match awareness has got even better and he still knows how to hit fours and sixes at will. De Villiers vs Russell in the 20th over read: 4, 6, 2, wide, 4, 0, 4. Need we say more?

No wonder RCB played with only three overseas players instead of four. ABD is as good as two of them.