MATCH STORIES
Follow UsSunil Narine doesn’t spare Royal Challengers Bengaluru. With the ball, he is a menace. And with the bat, he is an equally potent threat in the last seven years.
Since Gautam Gambhir’s decision to send Narine as an opener in 2017, Narine has opened seven times against RCB, accumulating a staggering 240 runs, but what is more impressive is the fact that it came at a strike rate of 203.4, a boundary in every 2.7 balls, and that translates to a boundary rate of 85.0%.
On Friday, Narine spared none. Everyone knew he was a big hitter against spin, but RCB had no fear, having stacked their side with full pacers apart from a lone spinner in Mayank Dagar. So much so that in his 22-ball innings today, Narine faced only two deliveries from Dagar. That’s a match-up disadvantage for him, which had the potential to derail his stay in the middle, but instead, it turned out to be a completely different story.
Narine went on the offensive against RCB pacers and, in the process, showed the home team what the next two months could look like.
The troika of Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, and Alzarri Joseph seemed devoid of any plan and their only defense mechanism was to bowl short balls. Whenever they took the length forward, it was either a half-volley waiting to be smashed away or a juicy full toss. So they naturally bowled more and more short balls yet gave away runs at an ER of 11 at that length.
Narine scored 47 runs off just 22 balls while guiding KKR to 85/0 in the powerplay. The match was over there itself, leaving no chance for the home team to make a comeback.
In IPL 2023, only Mumbai Indians, with a death-over economy rate of 11.8, had conceded more runs than RCB, who had an ER of 11.1. Mohammed Siraj was going for runs, as were Harshal Patel and Josh Hazlewood. Everyone expected the coaching set-up to fill that void in the IPL 2024 auction, but as one could witness, it lacked any kind of serious strategy.
Tonight’s game was nothing but a manifestation of that evening in Dubai. When Yash Dayal bowled in a crafty manner to land a win for RCB against Punjab Kings on March 25 (Monday), many RCB fans breathed a sigh of relief. He seemed an improved version of the avatar that was once taken to the cleaners by his UP teammate Rinku Singh. But four evenings later, it seemed as though the ghosts of Ahmedabad 2023 had returned as Dayal struggled to grip the ball.
The less we talk about Siraj, the better. The most experienced pacer of the side, Siraj has had a huge responsibility on his shoulder, but he was found wanting throughout the innings. Even someone like Shreyas Iyer, who struggles against short-length balls that have become the stuff of legend lately, had no problem whatsoever taking him down.
Credit is due to Vijaykumar Vyshak, who did his best to contain the run flow. He brought his understanding of Chinnaswamy to vary his length and, more importantly, wasn’t one-dimensional. But he could’ve done only so much.
If the early indications are anything to go by, this is going to be a long summer for RCB. Mo Bobat and Andy Flower have a task in hand to get the season back in order, but that’s not going to be an easy task.
