OPINION
Follow UsIn a game of T20 cricket, it is often the team with the best analysis unit and a captain understanding enough to use them in the right way that comes out triumphs. While some teams have done that beautifully - take Mumbai Indians and their five titles for example - many have faltered on the wayside, only to realize the mistakes later.
One of the biggest problems with Royal Challengers Bangalore over the years has been fiddling with multiple ideas and ending up with a mixture of everything, only to see the unit being thrashed all around. They have hardly had a coherent process and we all know the result.
If the KKR game, however, was an indication of things to come, then RCB fans have reasons to be optimistic. Sure enough, there was no logical explanation of the game entering the 20th over and the side facing the prospects of a loss from an impending strong position, but the three-time finalists played with freedom and made the best use of available data to nail the first dig. It was a kind of bowling performance that Virat Kohli during his time at the helm and Mike Hesson, Team Director, have strongly advocated for a few seasons now.
Nailing down the back-of-length spot perfectly
The pitch at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai offered variable bounce from the outset and exploiting that was going to be key. From the very first over, David Willey landed the ball on the shorter side, giving a clue to Akash Deep, whose raw pace kept him in a favorable position to target the KKR openers who were rocking on the backfoot more often. Venkatesh Iyer, who was comfortable hitting between cover and point, suffered the wrath of Siraj using the angle to bowl into him. Once he was caught off guard in the plan, Faf du Plessis introduced Akash Deep to nail the short ball and Iyer departed on the first ball. It was a well-laid plan that had the potential to harness the impact.
It was not a one-off situation either. Akash Deep and Siraj nailed the same plan for Nitish Rana and Ajinkya Rahane respectively, with both failing to control the pull shot after the ball rose sharply on them. For a moment, it seemed like RCB had a cloak of metal on their body to force the game to submission. If there was a perfect execution, it was that moment that nailed it in the truest sense.
Taming Russell in the best way possible
Make no fuss - Andre Russell loves RCB. He averages more than 45 runs per dismissal with an SR in excess of 200, the best for him against a team in IPL. Among batters to have scored 300+ runs against an opponent in IPL, no batter has had a better SR than Russell has achieved against RCB (SR of 215). You could expect him to score heavy once again but Harshal Patel’s perfect execution of the plan made Russell’s dream an unfinished story.
Since IPL 2020, Russell has developed a peculiar habit of chasing balls outside the sixth stump line, hence ending up with dismissals not really characteristic of him. He has been dismissed seven times in the last three years, chasing balls in that zone, and was in for another shock when Harshal Patel attacked him on that line with a scrambled seam delivery. With a deep point and deep cover in place, Harshal had the perfect protection to deceive Russell and boy did it reap some solid dividends!
The Hasaranga factor
Another architect, in fact, the biggest of For all the magic of Wanindu Hasaranga at the international level, it was still a shock when RCB splurged an insane amount of ₹10.75 crore in the mega auction to secure his services. Not only was Hasaranga an unproven customer on the biggest cricket league of them all, but also spending that big on an overseas star never made sense, especially knowing the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav were available in the market.
But Wednesday changed the perception and how!
Unlike someone like Ravi Bishnoi, whose stock ball normally turns into the batter, Hasaranga bowls more conventional leg-spin. That said, his googly can be extremely deceptive, and even more deceptive is the one that holds the line. The dip he generates while bowling the wrong ‘un leaves a difficult imprint on the batters playing across the line. His dismissals of Sunil Narine and Sheldon Jackson had that imprint.
Nothing could really please Hesson and co than seeing their premium buy turning into a solid match-winner in only the second game of the season. Maintaining the same momentum and strengthening the other chinks in the armour would make them a solid contender if they aren’t already.
