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Aakash Chopra has highlighted the fact that the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) tendency to suffer massive defeats could cost them a spot in the IPL 2021 playoffs. RCB with a strong batting line-up including the likes of AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, and Virat Kohli was dismissed after just scoring 92 runs in their Indian Premier League encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Monday.

They then allowed the Eoin Morgan-led side to chase down the target in just ten overs as KKR openers Shubman Gill (48) and debutant Venkatesh Iyer (41 not out) ensured KKR to cruise to a 9 wicket win.

Aakash Chopra: When RCB Lose, They Lose So Badly

Aakash Chopra highlighted that the Virat Kohli-led side is prone to embarrassing losses, while he reviewed the match between KKR and RCB in a video shared on his YouTube channel.

“Royal Challengers looked a little challenged. Kohli’s team doesn’t win when he wins the toss. There has been a slight upheaval already in the table. Bangalore’s system is different, when they lose, they lose so badly,” said Aakash Chopra.

The cricketer-turned-commentator added that RCB needs to learn from the likes of the franchises Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Mumbai Indians (MI) on how to recover from a poor start.

Varun Chakravarthy and Eoin Morgan Image Source : PTI — Varun Chakravarthy and Eoin Morgan- Image Source: PTI

“Great teams, when they lose give two points, but do not lose too much with that. They save the net run rate and take the match deep because it will come in handy in the end. If you see the first match, Chennai were 25/4 and found a way to reach 156. In the same match, Mumbai had lost three wickets in the powerplay but they found a way to last 20 overs,” said Aakash Chopra.

RCB was decently placed at a score of 41/1 just before the end of the powerplay’s first 6 overs. They lost their next six wickets for just 25 runs and could not even bat out their full quota of overs as they managed to score only 92.

Man of the Match spinner Varun Chakravarthy picked up 3 scalps from 4 overs conceding only 13 runs while all-rounder pacer Andre Russell supported him by picking 3 scalps too conceding 9 runs in 3 overs. For RCB, Devdutt Padikkal was the top scorer scoring 22 runs but his dismissal triggered a collapse from which RCB didn’t recover.

Aakash Chopra Observes RCB’s Net Run Rate Is Worst Among All The Teams

Aakash Chopra pointed out that RCB will be in deep trouble if they don’t register at least three more wins.

“But this is the team that when they lose wickets, they do it one after the other and they don’t play the entire 20 overs. The net run rate takes such a solid beating, that in the end they will get stuck if they don’t have 16 points,” said Aakash Chopra.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Image Credit: Twitter)

The 44-year-old commentator and former opening batsman signed off by highlighting that RCB’s poor net run rate could cause their exit from the tournament.

“The net run rate will drown them if they are stuck with someone on 14 points. Their net run is worst among the top four teams and Kolkata, who have reached the fifth spot, their net run rate is better than them,” said Aakash Chopra.

This was KKR’s biggest win and RCB’s biggest defeat in terms of balls to spare (60 balls). Before the RCB match, KKR’s biggest win in terms of balls remaining was 37 deliveries. They have obliterated that by winning with 60 balls to spare against RCB. This is also the sixth time RCB has been bowled out for under 100 in IPL cricket. It was the sixth successive defeat for Bangalore in the UAE.