One of the remarkable features of Royal Challengers Bengaluru this season has been how efficient their bowling has been. It has been one of their standout features in helping them get to the playoffs. But on Friday against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, the bowling attack did look toothless. Hyderabad batters have been delivered hit-me balls far too often during their batting innings.
“I think it was 20-30 runs extra. They played very well. I didn’t have any answers for their attack. We were rusty. The intensity was not there initially. In the death, we were bowling more accurately,” Jitesh said after the match. “Sometimes losing a game is a very good sign because you can check and analyse. The positive things are that everyone’s chipping in. After this loss, we’ve got a setback to check [things] again. We’ll move forward.”
posted a competitive 231 for 6, riding on Ishan Kishan’s 48-ball unbeaten 94 and then restricted to 189 in 19.5 overs.
Apart from Kishan, left-handed opener smashed 17-ball 34 with almost all the RCB bowlers being among the wickets.
Kishan hit seven fours and five sixes. For RCB, Romario Shepherd took 2 for 14.
RCB in the chase through Phil Salt (62, 32b, 4xx, 5×6), (43, 25b, 7×4, 1×6) and Jitesh Sharma (24, 15b), but could only amass 189 before getting bundled out, and it was RCB’s first defeat away from home this season. Eshan Malinga and Pat Cummins got two and three wickets respectively for RCB. side lost the last seven wickets for 60 runs as Cummins (3/28) and Malinga (2/37) led ’s bowling charge. RCB have already qualified for the play-offs and they need to win their last match to have a chance to finish in top-two.
As a result of this heavy defeat, Royal Challengers (17 points) have slid down to third on the table behind (18) and (17). The Net Run Rate (NRR) also took a significant beating.
(With agency inputs)
