Royal Challengers Bangalore were having a walk in the park and while enjoying the breeze that came in from the Arabian Sea via the Marine Drive, they swatted away Rajasthan Royals as if it was a fly that was trying to spoil their evening stroll. Sounds easy? It was so.
Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers won their fourth match on the trot with utter disdain, chasing the 178-run target at the Wankhede without losing a single wicket and with 21 balls to spare.
Be it Chennai, where they won their first three matches, or Mumbai on Thursday, Royal Challengers are playing like they probably never did in the IPL’s last 13 editions. How confident are they looking? Well, they played with only four specialist batsmen — Devdutt Padikkal, Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers — against Rajasthan.
They needed just two of them to chase down an almost 180-run target. Padikkal smashed a brilliant 101 not out off 52 balls, while his captain, Kohli, remained unbeaten on 72 off 47 balls. Between them, the openers uncorked 17 fours and nine sixes to trample the Rajasthan’s bowling. It was a celebration of strokeplay from the two.
Mohammed Siraj after dismissing Jos Buttler. PTI
Having a ball
Not just with the bat, Royal Challengers have mastered oppositions with the ball as well this year. Against Rajasthan, Mohammed Siraj (3/27) and Kyle Jamieson (1/28) were so good that though the other bowlers had an average day, it did not affect them much.
Kohli used six bowlers on Thursday and Shahbaz Ahmed, the left-arm spinner who plays for Bengal, was not one of them. Ahmed had figures of 3/7 from two overs in the win over Sunrisers Hyderabad. In his team’s other three matches, he has bowled only one over, or we may say he was not required to bowl by his captain. Kohli is overflowing with options this year.
Rajasthan messy
This was Rajasthan’s third loss in four matches. It seems it will be extremely difficult for them to make a mark in this IPL.
Why so? First of all, they have lost two of their best players to injuries — Ben Stokes is out for the season while tearaway pacer Jofra Archer’s return is still uncertain, or rather unlikely. That’s too deep a scar to heal.
They also erred in releasing Steve Smith before this season and did not bother to get a proper replacement for the experienced Aussie at the auction. Captaincy was thrust on the wobbly shoulders of Sanju Samson, who despite all his talent, looks a bundle of nerves on the field.
On Thursday, they were 43/4 at one stage before the likes of Shivam Dube (46 off 32 balls), Rahul Tewatia (40 off 23 balls) and Riyan Parag (25 off 16 balls) pulled them out of the black hole.
But the total was too little. As little as a fly.
