Rajasthan Royals batsmen continued with their ‘art’ of messing up a strong start, and on this occasion Royal Challengers Bangalore benefited, winning comfortably by seven wickets at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday.
The Royals, sent in to bat, suffered a major collapse, losing nine wickets for only 72 despite a strong start provided by openers Evin Lewis (58) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (31), and limped to a modest total
of 149/9.
RCB, in reply, lost their captain Virat Kohli soon after the Powerplay with another 92 needed for victory. But Glenn Maxwell, who seems to be enjoying his stint with the RCB, stood up with yet another match-winning knock (50 not out) and also shared a solid 69-run stand for the third wicket with ’keeper-batsman KS Bharat, helping RCB romp home with 17 balls remaining.
Courtesy this win, RCB have cemented their place at No.3 in the standings with 14 points from 11 matches, moving a step closer to the play-offs. The Royals, who seem to be digging their own grave, are second from bottom.
Gaining maturity
In quite a few instances in the past, losing Kohli with not enough runs on the board has gone on to hurt RCB even when they were chasing low totals. But Maxwell’s arrival this season has made at least one aspect very clear: It’s no more just about the Kohli-AB de Villiers show as far as RCB’s batting is concerned.
In what would come as a surprise to most, the Australia all-rounder has eclipsed both Kohli and De Villiers to become RCB’s top run-getter so far in this edition with 350 runs, averaging close to 40 (38.88) and having a strike rate of 141.70. It’s fair enough to say that Maxwell has gained
maturity and certainly been a factor to make some kind of a difference in terms of RCB’s batting.
Even on Wednesday, he took his time to settle down, giving the strike to a set Bharat. During those tricky middle overs, he hardly played any loose stroke and avoided unnecessary risks, especially against the likes of Mustafizur Rahman and the Royals spinners, which paid him dividends.
Poor strokes
One would sympathise with captain Sanju Samson lately, for the other Royals batsmen failed to give him adequate support in the last few matches. But in this game, Samson himself threw it away, playing a completely needless shot just like most of his teammates after Lewis and Yashasvi laid a solid platform for the Royals.
It seemed like the Royals batsmen were given the task of giving catching practice in the deep. RCB bowlers, though, had no reason to complain with Harshal Patel (3/34) again finishing with best figures. His strikes in the final over of the Royals innings have taken his season tally to 26 wickets.
Prior to that, Yuzvendra Chahal (2/18) found another opportunity to send a message across to the national selectors, while Bengal’s Shahbaz Ahmed too struck twice with his left-arm spin. Samson was the first of Shahbaz’ two scalps.
