LSG suffered a 6-wicket defeat on their home ground after setting a record first innings total. RCB chased down 228 with 8 balls remaining as the run chase was breath-taking & now march towards the Top 2 and will face Punjab Kings in Qualifier 1 tomorrow on 29th May at Chandigarh. Let’s look at the reasons for LSG’s defeat over RCB.
Poor Bowling
LSG batted first and posted a huge total of 227/3 on board. This is the highest first-innings total at the Ekana stadium. But their bowlers let them down. None of them could create a threat for batters. No one was able to bowl a shut down over to control the run flow.
Poor bowling changes
Even Pant made some poor decisions in the bowling changes. Akash Singh bowled the first over and gave just 9 runs. He got a little bit of movement as well. Virat Kohli has struggled against left-arm seamers in the new ball.
William O’Rourke came to bowl the second over and went for 22 runs. He wasted the shine of the new ball and was bowling short deliveries. RCB were 31/0 in 2 overs. Pant immediately pressed the panic button and introduced Digvesh in the third over, followed by Shebaz Ahmed in the fourth.
Pant could have brought Akash Singh in the 3rd over when the ball was still new. It is important to use the right bowlers at the right phases. LSG made a blunder in team selection itself by playing only 5 bowlers. With the impact player, playing only 5 bowlers is not the right combination.
They played an extra batter Himmat Singh in the last 2 matches where he didn’t get chance to bat. Any one of Ravi Bishnoi or Prince Yadav could have played in his place. They would have compensated the bad day of William. He went for two 20-runs overs ( 22 runs in the second over and 21 runs in the 18th over,)
William O Rourke had a bad day in the field, and they were forced to finish his 4 overs, in which he went for 74 runs. This is the 3rd expensive spell in IPL history. Rourke made a comeback in his second over by dismissing both Patidar ( 14 off 7 ) and Liam Livingston ( 0 off 1 ) in back-to-back deliveries, in the 8th over, but couldn’t maintain the momentum in his next 2 overs. RCB were 91/3 at 8 overs at that time.
Rishabh didn’t use spinners in the middle overs when Mayank Agarwal was batting. He introduced Akash Singh in the 10th over against him, and Mayank smashed 5 boundaries in that over. He brought Shahbaz Ahmed too late in the 15th over when both Jitesh and Mayank were settled in the crease.
Shabaz Ahmed went for 21 runs in that over. The momentum completely turned towards RCB in that over. Digvesh took the wicket of Jitesh in the first ball of the 17th over, but unfortunately it was a no-ball. RCB required 39 runs off 24 balls at that stage.
That was the only chance of LSG coming back into the game and Digvesh bottled it with a sideline no ball. Jitesh smashed the free hit ball to six and gained momentum again.
Ekana was a big ground with big side boundaries, but LSG bowlers didn’t use the short ball tactics. William O Rourke, who is 6 feet 8 inches, used the short balls in the powerplay against the best player Virat, but didn’t use them in the middle overs.
Akash Singh took the wicket of Phil Salt ( 30 off 19 ) in the 6th over with a slower bouncer wide outside off. Salt edged it and it landed on the hands of Digvesh Rathi in the mid off. Even Akash Singh never used that ball later in the match. They were trying for Yorkers and ended up feeding the batters with the slot deliveries.
Sloppy fielding
LSG were very poor on the fielding department. They did a lost of misfields, batters could convert many dot balls into ones and ones into two’s. They couldn’t bowl tight overs because of their fielding.
William O’Rourke missed an easy runout of Jitesh Sharma in the 14th over. RCB were 153/4 in 13.4 overs and Jitesh was batting at 21 runs off 9 balls at that time. The runout chance hurt LSG the most, as Jitesh added 64 runs in the next 24 balls he faced and played a match winning knock of 85* ( 33 ).
Also Read: LSG vs RCB: Chasing Dreams, Breaking Records – RCB Roars Louder Than Ever