IPL 2021 | RR vs RCB: Hits and Flops as impassioned Royal Challengers tame spiritless Royals

What makes the Indian Premier League a different and fair tournament than others in the eyes of experts is that it allows the best sides to come at the top, if not immediately, then eventually while exposing the lack of depth in squads that are built around one or two superstar players.

The contest between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals which was reduced to a no-contest after the first 10 overs of the game, depicted completely that picture about the quality of the tournament.

The Royals were off to a rollicking start as the openers Evin Lewis and Yashasvi Jaiswal were putting the RCB bowling to the sword. 

The duo added 77 runs for the first wicket in the ninth over but establishing their mediocrity so far in the season, the Royals lost their way and lost six wickets in the space of the next six overs for just 50 runs and finished at a mere 149 runs.

In reply, the RCB too were off to a flier as Virat Kohli was on the button to press the accelerator from the word go in the company of Devdutt Padikkal. Although they could not score big, the partnership between Glenn Maxwell and KS Bharat ripped all the limitations of the Royals team open with a convincing chase.

Here, we’ll analyse the best and the worst performance of the night between the RCB and the RR.

Hits

Yuzvendra Chahal

Just as the days of the IPL 2021 are starting to be numbered, Yuzvendra Chahal is picking up his best form which has been missing for a very long time and cost him a place in India’s World T20 squad.

First, he was on the top of his game in a big game against the Mumbai Indians and to shrug off any doubts that it was a one-off, he followed another stellar performance with the ball against the Royals.

Virat Kohli turned to a spinner in the face of an assault by Lewis and Jaisawal but his choice of weapon was Maxwell and not Chahal for the obvious reason of match up. 

The move did not work and the off-spinner was carted by both the Royals opener and hence Kohli brought Chahal only after the end of the 10th over. The start was not auspicious as Samson effortlessly despatched him over cover in one of the signature shots.

However, he was helped by the dismissal of Lewis in the next over by the debutant George Garton and little did anyone knew what was to unfold in the game. 

Chahal came back strongly in his next over by the wicket of Mahipal Lomror who was eager to continue with the good work done by the openers and his skipper at the other end. 

Chahal was lucky to also have his teammate stepping up the task from the other end as Shahbaz Ahmed dismissed Sanju Samson and Rahul Tewatia to break the Royals’ back.

The spell that started as a nine-run over was controlled to 15 runs off the three over in total and Chahal got the better of Liam Livingstone to hit the final nail in the Royals’ coffin.

A bowling figure of 4-0-18-2 reads fantastic for a leg spinner especially against a team that went off to a flier and needed to be contained both by runs and wickets.

Evin Lewis

When Evin Lewis was smashing the RCB bowlers all around the park, he would not hope and imagined that the Royals will make a meal of his aggression and lose the game so helplessly.

Lewis was a like for like replacement of Jos Buttler and by all accounts, he has not allowed the Royals to miss the Englishman one bit. He has been at it with all his aggression from the moment he has set his foot on the crease and the game against the RCB was no different.

The RCB tried a left-arm pacer George Garton to bring more sharpness with the new ball as Hrashal Patel was fulfilling the role of bowling at the death, but Lewis was in no mood to spare them.

After playing a quiet first over of Garton, Lewis was in full mood to rattle him and mauled him for two sixes and one four to plunder 18 runs off him to set the Royals up and running from both the ends.

Next on the target was Harshal, who was fresh from a remarkable hat-trick against the Mumbai Indians, and Lewis did not need a second invitation to send him soaring over the fence. 

He was also watchful from one end as Jaiswal was going great guns at the other end but as soon as the young Indian departed, Lewis took the baton and became more aggressive. Once again, his prime target was Harshal who offered him freebies to feast on.

The England left-armer had the last laugh by dismissing him on his favourite shot ball to hit sixes but his 37-ball 58 provided the Royals with a perfect platform to press on a big and decisively higher total on the board.

Shahbaz Ahmed

Virat Kohli held back both Chahal and Shahbaz Ahmed due to the overstay of the left-handed Royals’ openers in what could have been a case of overdoing match up the game but it did not boomerang on him as both Lewis and Jaiswal were dismissed with almost half of the overs were remaining to be bowled.

As soon as Garton dismissed Lewis and Chahal got Lomror stumped in the consecutive 12th and 13th over respectively, Kohli brought Shahbaz into the attack to combat the right-handed duo of Samson and Livingstone.

Samson was set up in his new avatar to go for another big score but got lured into playing one in the air over the cover region. He could hit it straighter and the sweeper cover Padikkal barely moved to snaffle his mistimed shot and pegg the Royals back. 

Shahbaz was on the money in the first over and was gifted a wicket by Rahul Tewatia, who has shown enough signs of getting exposed by consistent examination in IPL. Padikkal, who was at sweeper cover for Samson’s fall, was shifted to the deep backward square in anticipation of a lofted shot and the left-hander obliged with a shot right in his hands.

From 100/1 in 11 overs, the Royals nosedived to 117/5 in a span of three overs and squandered all the fireworks lit up by Lewis and Jaiswal at the top of the order.

Flops

Chris Morris

If this space would have respected the fear of repetitions, Chris Morris would not have made it to this list but his poor performance has been a matter of fact and sadly for the Royals, it truly reflects their overall standings.

The game against the RCB was the third game in a row he had a torrid time with the ball. He has played three games including the one against the RCB in the UAE leg of the tournament and his bowling figures have been 47/0, 27/0 (3 overs), and 50/0 that came in this game.

The Royals needed his most expensive player to stand up tall in the effort of defending a sub-par total on a true surface in Dubai. Instead, he conceded three boundaries in the very first over to provide the worst possible start to the Royals, albeit one boundary came in a streaky fashion when Virat Kohli got ambitious against a ball that swung late on him. Morris got greedy after seeing the ball swinging and erred in line and length for Kohli to make use of it.

There was no coming back from that horrible start and fittingly the Royals’ defence that started with Morris’ horrible over was concluded in a comprehensive manner by the RCB in his final over only. 

When he came to bowl his final over against the pair of Maxwell and AB de Villiers, the RCB needed 23 runs off the final 24 balls and it appeared the Australian right-hander has had enough of playing anchoring innings.

He came hard against Morris and ransacked him for 22 runs to finish the job for the RCB, which was done by de Villiers in the very next over.

Liam Livingstone

The Royals have not been the side they could have been and their story has been the same for a long time now. The Royals were always dependent on their overseas star players to do the heavy lifting with the Indian players chipping in with good contributions.

Unlike their past seasons, they have been found wanting on both accounts. As they suffered the absence of their star trio— Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer for this season, they were highly reliant on Liam Livingstone, who had come to the tournament on the back of the red-hot form in the short forms of the game and Chris Morris. Neither of them has stood up tall and instead, their downfalls have been the prime reason for the Royals’ misery in the UAE leg of the tournament.

Livingstone was dominating bowlers for fun in The Hundred and the home series against Pakistan before donning the Royals jersey in the UAE. However, the great anticipation and big promises produced muted returns.

On the night against the RCB, he was the only major batsman at the crease and needed to bat smartly to keep the Royals in the game for a long period of time. However, he chose to throw caution to the wind against the most wiliest bowler form the opposition camp in Chahal and perished in the process to leave the Royals in a lurch. 

He has played four games for the Royals this season and has been able to manage a mere 36 runs at an abysmal average of nine runs per innings. 

The Royals management that gets a lot of flake for their poor performance could not have done anything better but to chose a rising superstar in world cricket who did not seem to have any weakness. To talk of the weakness against spinner as England batsmen can generally be found with, Livingstone was all over none other than Rashid Khan in the Hundred earlier this year.

The Royals have not been officially knocked out of the tournament as of yet but the path looks further steeper for them and so is for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Punjab Kings. All three of them are placed at the bottom half of the table.

On the other side of the fence, the Royal Challengers would be ecstatic with such commanding performance and a big win to consolidate their position among the top three teams on the points table.