IPL 2021 | RCB vs PBKS: Harpreet Brar rules the show as Kings open up cracks in Royal Challengers

Normalcy seems to be returning in the Indian Premier League with the Royal Challengers Bangalore coming back to playing with a muddled mindset which has been their legacy over the years in the league.

In the game against the Punjab Kings, the Royal Challengers bounced back admirably after the onslaught by Chris Gayle at the top of the order but only to let all of that go away from their hands against KL Rahul and Harpreet Brar in the end overs.

Chasing a target of runs, the Royal Challengers Bangalore did not help their case by Dedvdutt Padikkal perishing in the process of showing bravado against the pace of Riley Meredith and the fearsome trio of Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers falling in quick succession.

Here, we’ll analyse the best and the worst performances of the game between the Punjab Kings and the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Hits

Harpreet Brar

Harpreet Brar was deemed good enough for only one game last season under the leadership of Anil Kumble and KL Rahul albeit the team did not fare well for the most part of the season.

The story did not change coming into the ongoing season except for the fact that Rahul needed the presence of an all-rounder in the middle to provide balance to the side.

And, boy did not he balance well with the Royal Challengers?

Rahul brought him in the attack just after the powerplay to keep the Kohli-Rajat Patidar duo under pressure. None of them was going great guns and the Punjab Kings thought of tightening their grip on the match with a lot of runs to defend from the remaining 14 overs.

Kohli had other plans though and he danced down the track on the very first ball of Mogga lad and deposited him straight down the ground to show his willingness. Brar made a poor start and conceded 10 runs in his first over.

Rahul did not give up on him and nor did Kohli and welcome him back with another four dancing down the track in signs of desperation. But, unlike the last over, he recovered well to keep it to a seven-run over.

Rahul persisted with Brar and not it was the time for the Punjab lad to repay the faith and he did it in grand style with a double maiden over—first of this IPL edition.

He dismissed the Royal Challengers skipper Virat Kohli, and Glenn maxwell on consecutive deliveries to choke the men in red and gold in the middle phase. If the twin strikes were not enough to dent Royal Challengers’ chances, he came back to eliminate a grave threat of AB de Villiers to pave a clean and perfect path for a win for the Punjab Kings.

His bowling performance alone would have earned him the player of the match award but he had more to show against the RCB as his batting blitz put the Punjab Kings in a formidable position even before turning up with the ball.

He walked out to bat at the number seven position in the 15th over when a googly from Yuzvendra Chahal found Shahrukh Khan searching for the ball. Fall of five wickets pegged KL Rahul back just when he was looking ominous to get going for a big one. 

He started slowly but pressed on the accelerator against Harshal Patel in the 18th over and smashed him for a four and a six on consecutive deliveries to get the Kings up and running for a big score.

Then, KL Rahul took over the onus of bringing the big shots out from him. However, Brar provided the most perfect finish to the Kings’ innings with a disdainful hoick off Patel.

KL Rahul

KL Rahul has had an interesting IPL season so far with runs coming from the bat but without shutting down criticism surrounding his strike rate and intent o take on the bowlers.

It looked as if he was headed for another big but ineffective score against the Royal Challengers when wickets started falling around him. He brought a 35-ball fifty in the 12th over and it was high time Rahul struck a big one to justify all the time he took at the start of the innings.

His celebration of fifty and an intent to break free could well have been checked by the RCB bowlers as both Deepak Hooda and Sharukh Khan falling in quick succession. 

However, just when both Rahul and the Kings were appearing floundering in their batting effort, the skipper turned a corner with a barrage of boundaries that started on the last ball of the 19th over. He displayed his full range of shots and came at Harshal Patel with all his innovations and plundered him 22 runs in the last over to take the Kings past the 170-run mark.

Rahul would be relieved at executing his batting tactics perfectly on the night against the Royal Challengers otherwise another failure to bring up a big score after batting conservatively would have reignited the debate surrounding his mindset and a flawed batting approach. 

Chris Gayle

If the Punjab Kings were in the game at the halfway stage even as Rahul was batting well within his limits, it was for the Universe Boss who was bossing the Royal Challengers bowlers around.

When Gayle walked out to bat in the fourth over and by the fifth over the Kings could muster only 29 runs, before the big man from Jamaica may be said to himself that enough was enough.

He took the game head-on against another big man from New Zealand—Kyle Jamieson who has been brought into the RCB team for his ability to extract bounce. None of those qualities came to the fore at the start and Gayle thumped him for five boundaries off his first over to get the momentum in the Kings’ favour by the end of the powerplay.

The end of the fielding restriction did not deter Gayle as he had no other option but to keep going at the bowling with the skipper Rahul looking to do the favourite job of ‘anchoring’ the innings.

Kohli took a punt on Yuzvendra Chahal to dismiss Gayle but it boomeranged on him with the left-hander finding the distance between him and the sightscreen on two occasions in the 7th over. 

Looking at Gayle going for all money, Rahul too joined the party and the Kings started motoring along after a sluggish start. Gayle could not bring up his fifty and was undone by an accurate short ball from Daniel Sams that cramped him for space, but his 24-ball 46 rejuvenated the Kings batting effort.

Flops

Harshal Patel

Harshal Patel has been having an IPL season of two contrasting fortunes as his wicket column is welling up with every game along with an awful looking economy rate and treatment he gets in the end overs.

He was on the brink of becoming the bowler to conceded the most number of runs against the Chennai Super Kings when he appeared blank against Ravindra Jadeja but fell short only at 37 runs. 

The story went on a similar scrip against the Punjab Kings as KL Rahul made him look like a bowler who ran out of ideas and all options with his innovation. He ended up conceding 22 runs in the last over and add an 18-run over when Harpreet Brar got stuck into him in the 18th over, and what appeared to be an under-par score turned out to be a match-winning one.

Patel’s wicket-taking abilities have provided relief to Virat Kohli in critical junctures of games while his inability to execute plans in the death would have also opened up old wounds of ineffective bowling in the last overs of games in the mind of the skipper and the team management.

Virat Kohli

Needing 180 runs to chase, the RCB expected Virat Kohli to bat long while the onus of scoring briskly in the powerplay was on Devdutt Padikkal. However, he was found wanting against the pace of Riley Meredith and the accuracy of Mohammed Shami.

Kohli, on the other hand, was off to a decent start with one boundary each off Shami and Meredith. Meanwhile, he also looked comfortable and hurried against the Australian pacer who has been picked to play for his ‘real pace’ as the skipper Rahul had described before the IPL.

As Meredith cleaned up the stumps of Padikkal, Royal Challengers misery compounded with them opting for Rajat Patidar for the number three slot. Both the right-hander struggled to time the ball regularly albeit Kohli found periodic boundaries.

However, Kohli has had a larger goal to fulfil being a masterful chaser for such a long time in his career. He has been known for pacing his innings well and timing his aggressive approach perfectly to deny the opposition any chance to get in the game.

To be fair to him, Patidar’s struggles multiplied his problems and dilemma as well as he had to manufacture shots on deliveries that were not there to be hit. Kohli is not a power player who can dispatch balls out of the ground by his muscle power but lack of support from the other end did not make life easier for him.

The Royal Challengers could manage only 36 runs at the end of the powerplay and the required run rate was surging beyond 14 runs per over. He had to add impetus to the batting and attempted to put pressure on the spin twins of Harpreet Brar and Ravi Bishnoi. He succeeded against Brar hitting him for a six and a four on the first ball of his first two overs but failed to execute the third time and found his leg stump rattled in the process.

Brar went onto dismiss Maxwell on the next ball and Ab de Villiers in his next over to finish off any chances of RCB chasing down a big total, but the wicket of Kohli proved to be an inflexion point. He had to go big with Patidar not finding it easy but he too ate up too many deliveries in the powerplay and its weight turned out to be too heavy for him to carry for a long period of time.

The Challengers have lost only two games this season that includes the one against the Punjab Kings and hence they are far away from hitting the panic button. However, Kohli would be realistic to not overlook the signs of coming back of the old ghost of poor death bowling and unreliable middle order that has haunted his side perpetually.

The Kings would be delighted to come at the top of the Royal Challengers and they would be more ecstatic at newcomer putting their hands up in crunch moments of the game. However, with only three wins including the one against the Royal Challengers at the halfway mark of the tournament, the Kings would be desperate for more clinical performance if they have to stand a chance to advance into the playoff stage.