RCB registered a resounding victory against SRH in the first match.RCB quite comfortably chased down the target of 202 with 4.2 overs left & 6 wickets in hand. The SRH team somewhat lacked the fighting spirit, which hurt the team as Pat Cummins’ absence was evident in the match. Let’s look at the key reasons for SRH’s defeat against RCB
Failure of Travis Head & Abhishek Sharma
The sensational opening duo of Travis Head & Abhishek Sharma weren’t able to assert dominance. Even on a flat deck, Travis & Abhishek couldn’t capitalize on the power play. Travis was out while scoring 11 runs in 9 balls, whereas Abhishek scored 7 runs in 8 balls as they were struggling to hit the ball cleanly.
RCB’s Jacob Duffy made life harder for Travis & Abhishek as the ploy of bowling outside off-stump channel worked. The dismissals of both batters happened on short deliveries as they were foxed by an steep bouncer by Jacob Duffy. Jacob Duffy had a dream IPL debut taking 3 wickets for 22 runs in his spell.
Dropped catch of Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli was in blazing form during the run chase of 202 runs. Despite the early wicket of Phil Salt, the star batter wasn’t disturbed at all. Virat Kohli got a life on 29 as Heinrich Klaasen at long on couldn’t complete the catch; at that time, RCB’s score was 91-1 in 7.3 overs, needing another 111 to get. A wicket there would have changed the scheme of things.
Virat Kohli then made SRH pay massively as he smashed an unbeaten match-winning knock of 69 runs in 38 balls. Virat Kohli, along with Devdutt Padikkal, tormented SRH and registered a clinical victory for RCB.
Clueless captaincy of Ishan Kishan
Despite Ishan Kishan’s blistering captain’s knock of 80 runs in 38 balls (*8 fours and 5 sixes), the side lost. It was quite surprising to see that Ishan Kishan was keeping the wickets when Heinrich Klaasen was in the side. The burden of leading the side while wicket-keeping perhaps might have taken a toll on SRH’s destructive batter.
Eshan Malinga wasn’t given the new ball as he was hammered for 35 runs in 2 overs, which is mind-boggling. There’s no doubt that leading the side for the first time for Ishan Kishan would have been tough as filling the shoes of Pat Cummins (*injured and is expected to come at some stage in the tournament) isn’t easy. The experienced lad Jaydev Unadkat wasn’t able to take a string of wickets, which hurt the team a bit.
Also Read:Â RCB vs SRH: Virat Kohli Leads Rout Against SRH In Opener