Royal RCB flop show at Eden as Salt, Livingstone & Bethell combine for 7 runs

Ahead of the first T20I between India and England at Eden Gardens, all the talk was about how the visitors had not one, not two, but as many as three Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) players at their disposal - Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone and Jacob Bethell. The trio were expected to terrorise the Indian bowling attack, especially on a Kolkata wicket that had historically proven kind for batting, specifically six-hitting.

Yet, on the night, it turned out to be a royal flop show from England’s RCB stars as the three aforementioned batters combined to score 7 off 19 balls. 

Salt was the first to depart, and he walked back to the pavilion on just the third ball of the game. Arshdeep Singh moved the ball away from the right-hander and he top-edged one trying to flick the ball against the direction of the swing. It ballooned up and was safely pouched by the wicketkeeper Sanju Samson. 

Livingstone walked in at 65/3 in the 8th over but he lasted only two balls, getting cleaned bowled by a Varun Chakravarthy delivery that went straight with the arm. 

Lastly, after a painful stay at the middle, young Jacob Bethell hit a pull shot off Hardik Pandya straight into the hands of Abhishek Sharma at mid-wicket.

Bethell could easily have departed for 2, but he survived a very close stumping call on his fifth ball, once again off Varun's bowling.

The three players combined cost RCB a whopping 22.85 cr.