For the second match in a row, Royal Challengers celebrated batting-lineup failed to fire and this time it might have cost them a playoff berth. After being bowled out for a paltry 49 in their last outing against Kolkata Knight Riders which was followed by wash-out against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Virat Kohli’s men were bowled out for 134 by Gujarat Lions at M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday (April 27).
The Royal Challengers openers- Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli- started cautiously, hitting just a couple of boundaries in the first four overs. But their inning took a turn for the worse once Kohli’s pull shot went straight into the hands of the short fine-leg fielder. In the next deliveries, they lost Gayle and Travis Head to find themselves reeling at 23 for 3 inside five overs.
A short partnership between AB de Villiers and Kedar Jadhav stopped the rot for a bit before a well-set Jadhav threw away his wicket when he tried to play a fancy cut off the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja only to see the ball uprooting his leg stump. Their innings eventually ended on 134.
Speaking after the match, Jadhav rued the soft dismissals before admitting that his team failed to perform as a unit.
“Obviously, you have to bat according to the situation but sometimes when a batsman is feeling good about his game, playing the shots, that is the time your coach cannot tell you ‘you need to hold on and build a partnership’,” he said at the post-match conference. “It was one of those days where batsmen got out to some soft dismissals. Mine, AB even Virat who played a good shot but it went straight to the fielder. I guess, it was one of those unlucky days when we couldn’t click as a unit and we did well in patches.”
The target was never going to be pose a tough challenge for Gujarat Lions’ strong batting lineup and the visitors proved it by chasing down the total inside 14 overs. They were in a spot of bother after losing both their openers-Brendon McCullum and Ishan Kishan- with just 23 runs on the board but the game totally changed once Aaron Finch arrived in the middle. The hard-hitting Australia batsman fired on all cylinders right from the word go and by the time he was dismissed by Pawan Negi in the 13th over, he had inflicted irreparable damage on the home side. He struck 72 off just 34 balls with the help of 5 fours and six sixes and shared a 92-run stand with Suresh Raina to put his team on the path of an easy victory. Raina and Ravindra then did the rest to all but end Royal Challengers’ hopes of making it to the playoffs while keeping alive their team’s chances of making it to the last four.
The India middle-order batsmen further said his team is still looking for that elusive win that would set the tone for them in the ongoing season.
“We still need to look for that first win where we get our mindset right and we click as a unit. Seven to eight players doing well on a given day, that is how we will start creating momentum for us. We have shown that 3-4 guys are in good touch but we need to click at once,” he insisted.
When asked about whether the performers in this season should be preferred ahead of the out-of-form bug names, he said: “I don’t feel so because in 20-overs game, a team should always give preference to the top batters so that they get more balls to face and that is the best possible chance to build a good total. Obviously, we have been getting chances, even Mandeep and myself also. There was always time for us to build an inning but we are not clicking in those innings. So Mandeep and the other Indian batsmen have been getting enough opportunities but RCB has always been a batting side so top batters should bat more overs and that’s how it should be.”