BENGALURU: Royal Challengers Bangalore's IPL campaign, which started on a happy note, has turned into chaos, and their bowlers need a drastic change in their mindset against Sunrisers Hyderabad to register an elusive win here on Monday.
The Royal Challengers have prestigious players with high pedigree and elite coaches, but none of their plans have worked so far, evidenced by the team's 10th position in the standings with a sole win in six matches.
RCB's disappointing performance in this IPL is directly linked to the ineffectiveness of their bowlers.
They showed a clear lack of willingness to adapt and increase skills in situations that required out-of-the-box thinking.
In this IPL, bowlers have often relied on variations like the knuckle ball, slower bouncers and pace-off deliveries to counter the ultra-aggressive batsmen.However, Bengaluru's bowlers have been largely one-dimensional in their approach, allowing the batsmen to deal with ease and the match against Mumba Indians offers a case study.
For once, the RCB batsmen combined to take them to 196, but MI chased down the target in just 15.3 overs at the Wankhede Stadium as the visiting bowlers were generous in offering freebies.
Dew, short boundaries etc. cannot be counted as excuses when a team leaks above 13 runs per over. In fact, the RCB bowlers lacked the desire or imagination to blunt a batting unit full of intent.
This is an ominous sign against Sunrisers, whose batting line-up is as intimidating as MI's.Hyderabad have two batsmen - Heinrich Klaasen (186) and Abhishek Sharma (177) - in the top 10 run-scorers and Travis Head (133) has also been in consistent form.
But more than the number of runs, it is how they scored it that makes them more dangerous as Klaasen (193), Abhishek (208) and Head (177) tore apart the bowling unit in the power play and middle-end overs. Has been destroyed.
The equal power allocation through the batting ranks makes SRH a big proposition for the opposition bowlers.
That doesn't mean SRH, currently fifth on the table with six points from five matches, doesn't have any weak points.
Like RCB, bowling has been Hyderabad's weak spot in this tournament, with spinners Shahbaz Ahmed and Mayank Markande conceding more than 11 runs an over with minimal returns.But the Hyderabad team has got a savior in captain Pat Cummins, he is the leading wicket-taker with six wickets and has conceded only seven runs per over, which is a very respectable economy rate in this format.
Additionally, Cummins has also shown the flexibility to operate at different junctures of the match – bowling with the new ball in the power play or with the second change in the middle and death overs.
The inclusion of left-arm fast bowler T Natarajan (5 wickets, economy: 8.6) has given a new dimension and a little more control to their bowling in the last three matches.
After playing on the shirtfront in Hyderabad, SRH bowlers will not feel at home at Chinnaswamy, which has a pitch with similar characteristics.
But can RCB take advantage of the above mentioned small glitch in the Sunrisers attack?
Star batsman Virat Kohli is the current holder of the Orange Cap and half-centuries from captain Faf du Plessis, Rajat Patidar and Dinesh Karthik against MI will definitely boost RCB's confidence.But the form of Glenn Maxwell (32 runs, average: 5.3) remains a big concern.
Teams (from): Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (captain), Glenn Maxwell Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyyash Prabhudesai Will Jack, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar Vijaykumar Vishak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar,
Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapni Singh, Sourav Chauhan.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (captain), Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Ed Markram, Marco Johnson, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Saanvi Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markandey. , Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitis Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Shahbaz Ahmed, Travis Head, Jaydev Unadkat, Akas Singh, Jhatved Subramanian.The match will start at 7.30 pm.
The Royal Challengers have prestigious players with high pedigree and elite coaches, but none of their plans have worked so far, evidenced by the team's 10th position in the standings with a sole win in six matches.
RCB's disappointing performance in this IPL is directly linked to the ineffectiveness of their bowlers.
They showed a clear lack of willingness to adapt and increase skills in situations that required out-of-the-box thinking.
In this IPL, bowlers have often relied on variations like the knuckle ball, slower bouncers and pace-off deliveries to counter the ultra-aggressive batsmen.However, Bengaluru's bowlers have been largely one-dimensional in their approach, allowing the batsmen to deal with ease and the match against Mumba Indians offers a case study.
For once, the RCB batsmen combined to take them to 196, but MI chased down the target in just 15.3 overs at the Wankhede Stadium as the visiting bowlers were generous in offering freebies.
Dew, short boundaries etc. cannot be counted as excuses when a team leaks above 13 runs per over. In fact, the RCB bowlers lacked the desire or imagination to blunt a batting unit full of intent.
This is an ominous sign against Sunrisers, whose batting line-up is as intimidating as MI's.Hyderabad have two batsmen - Heinrich Klaasen (186) and Abhishek Sharma (177) - in the top 10 run-scorers and Travis Head (133) has also been in consistent form.
But more than the number of runs, it is how they scored it that makes them more dangerous as Klaasen (193), Abhishek (208) and Head (177) tore apart the bowling unit in the power play and middle-end overs. Has been destroyed.
The equal power allocation through the batting ranks makes SRH a big proposition for the opposition bowlers.
That doesn't mean SRH, currently fifth on the table with six points from five matches, doesn't have any weak points.
Like RCB, bowling has been Hyderabad's weak spot in this tournament, with spinners Shahbaz Ahmed and Mayank Markande conceding more than 11 runs an over with minimal returns.But the Hyderabad team has got a savior in captain Pat Cummins, he is the leading wicket-taker with six wickets and has conceded only seven runs per over, which is a very respectable economy rate in this format.
Additionally, Cummins has also shown the flexibility to operate at different junctures of the match – bowling with the new ball in the power play or with the second change in the middle and death overs.
The inclusion of left-arm fast bowler T Natarajan (5 wickets, economy: 8.6) has given a new dimension and a little more control to their bowling in the last three matches.
After playing on the shirtfront in Hyderabad, SRH bowlers will not feel at home at Chinnaswamy, which has a pitch with similar characteristics.
But can RCB take advantage of the above mentioned small glitch in the Sunrisers attack?
Star batsman Virat Kohli is the current holder of the Orange Cap and half-centuries from captain Faf du Plessis, Rajat Patidar and Dinesh Karthik against MI will definitely boost RCB's confidence.But the form of Glenn Maxwell (32 runs, average: 5.3) remains a big concern.
Teams (from): Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (captain), Glenn Maxwell Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyyash Prabhudesai Will Jack, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar Vijaykumar Vishak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar,
Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapni Singh, Sourav Chauhan.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (captain), Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Ed Markram, Marco Johnson, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Saanvi Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markandey. , Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitis Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Shahbaz Ahmed, Travis Head, Jaydev Unadkat, Akas Singh, Jhatved Subramanian.The match will start at 7.30 pm.
