SRH vs RCB: What experts said as Bangalore's trophy-drought continue

Virat Kohli and his team fell in the same trap of not being able to decide what is a good total batting first and in an attempt to get too much, ended up getting nothing really and once again choked on a big day to give Sunrisers yet another victory over them in the Playoffs of the IPL. With this six-wicket loss to the Orange Army, the red and gold bowed out of the tournament in Abu Dhabi.

For the Royal Challengers, nothing really went in their favour as they were forced to bat first on a lightly seaming track after losing the toss. Even after coming on to bat, the intent shown by the team was a defensive one instead of being smart as they tried to shield an experienced batsman like Aaron Finch and the captain decided to come up himself. The move backfired as both the captain and the team were given a jolt by Jason Holder.  

After the initial wickets of Kohli and Padikkal, the RCB never quite recovered and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals ending up with a total that at best was below par by at least 20 runs. AB de Villiers was the only one who tried to eke out some runs for the team, but he too was done in by a brilliant T Natarajan yorker.

While bowling, the RCB did try to assuage some kind of pressure by picking up the early wicket of Shreevats Goswami and then getting Manish Pandey and David Warner out as well. But Holder and Kane Williamson stood tall to see their team through to what was a sweet victory.   

Captains’ Viewpoint

Reacting to the four victories in a row, winning skipper David Warner said that he was finally off the pressure cooker and his nails are all intact. “As we knew we had to beat the top three teams to make it into the play-offs. My nails are ok for the moment,” he said.  

Talking about the fast bowlers, Warner said, “They have been of great impact for us. We like to bowl Sandy and Holder five overs at the top. Then we try to bowl Rashid and Natarajan in the middle overs.”

Lauding Rashid Khan and Kane Williamson for always standing up to the task and helping the team at the crucial junctures, the 33-year-old said, “Rashid has a lot of pressure on him to perform. Kane is our banker. He manages to stick in there and plays the pressure innings. I am running out of superlatives for these two blokes (Rashid and KW).

The wicket was a bit two-paced and agreeing to that the Australian said, “With the class of the batting line up, you knew that wicket had something in it. The boys bowled fantastically well in the middle overs.”

The next match of the Sunrisers would be aginst Delhi Capitals on 8th November and it would be in Abu Dhabi itself, where the Sunrisers have already played a game while the Capitals would be travelling from Dubai. Talking about that, Warner said that it is going to be a competitive game.

“It is too early to say. We obviously have Delhi to play. We have been talking about their world-class bowling side. With Shikhar in form, obviously, Shreyas is their lynchpin, they are a world-class side but I am excited,” concluded the SRH captain.

Losing captain for the 5th match in a row, Virat Kohli said that the game has slipped away from, his team in the first inning itself but they did well to pull it back in the second innings. “If you talk about the first innings I don't think we had enough runs on the board. We made one helluva game in the second half, the positions we got ourselves into in the second half,” he said.  

Saying that cricket is a game of margins, especially T20 Virat said, “If Kane was taken there then it is a different ball game. Altogether they put us under a lot of pressure in the first innings. Few soft dismissals, few fortunate ones for them as well and we just didn't have enough runs on the board.”

Sying that there is a need for the RCB batsmen to be more expressive with the bat, the 32-year-old said, “We didn't have any phases in the game where we got away from the opposition. We just allowed bowlers to bowl to the areas they wanted to and didn't put enough pressure on them.”

Talking about the positives from the season, Virat Kohli said that Devdutt Padikkal has impressed him a lot. He also praised Mohammaed Siraj, AB de Villiers and Yuzvendra Chahal for their contributions to the team’s success.

“Devdutt stepped up nicely and getting 400+ runs is not easy. He has played with a lot of class and efficiency for the team. Very happy for him. Siraj has had a good comeback. Yuzi has been solid as ever, AB has been solid as ever,” the skipper said.  

Talking about the competitive nature of this year’s tournament, Virat said that it has mostly been because the matches were played at only three venues and thereby the factor of home advantage was negated, giving everybody the same situation to perform in.

“No team is run away favourites as such and every team has strong players. Similar conditions for everyone was a reason this has been one of the competitive IPL this year,” said the Delhi born.  

Calling it as being more than just a league, Virat underscored the point as to how it has been able to play a pioneering role in reviving cricket post-covid-19. “It was amazing to have had this opportunity to come out and play. There's a bigger picture going around here and we are all contributing to that,” he said.  “To all our fans who have supported us like every year, we just want to thank them,” he concluded.

Expert Opinion

The experts seemed really impressed by the way Hyderabad fought their way back from nowhere to now reaching the Qualifier-2 and maybe the finals. They were equally critical of how the Bangalore team just gave up in the latter phase of the tournament.

Boria Majumdar, senior cricket analyst was of the opinion that RCB played good cricket this year and the only thing lacking for them was a good finisher. 

Harsha Bhogle, senior cricket commentator recounted how Hyderabad have always found a different person to win them the game and how it shows the strength of the team. He was particularly impressed by Kiwi captain Kane Williamson. 

Aakash Chopra called SRH a likeable entity mostly because they have found different match-winner in every game and termed Holder's the hero of this game signing as an important factor in the Orange Army's rise in the tournament. 

Ayaz Memon, veteran cricket analyst was impressed by the Sunrisers and especially the way their overseas stars performed. He also lauded their Indian players and called Nataran's yorker to AB de Villiers as the ball of the tournament. 

Sambit Bal, a senior cricket journalist pointed out how the RCB lost five of their last matches after winning seven of their first 10, suggesting that they peaked the wrong time, while SRH did exactly opposite of that and results have come in its favour. 

Now the Orange brigade will play the Capitals in a game that would take them to the finals and give them the opportunity to win the league for the second time since their first win in 2016.

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