A Jos Buttler hundred, another failure for Virat Kohli, another bad game for Mohammed Siraj…Friday night’s Qualifier 2 clash had all the quintessential elements of a one-sided game as RCB crashed out of IPL 2022 and Rajasthan Royals went into their first IPL final since 2008, the inaugural season when they went on to win the title.
Here are a few burning questions from the match.
How Obed McCoy has fulfilled a crucial role in the RR side
Obed McCoy has been an unsung hero for Rajasthan Royals in their run to the finals. The West Indian conceded just 10 runs in his final two overs in the death — just three came off the last over of the innings that he bowled — to continue his exceptional showing in the final four overs in IPL 2022. With a slew of tricks up his sleeve, McCoy had found success for West Indies last year in T20I series’ against Australia and South Africa.
It translated into a bid in the IPL auction, but it still took a while for him to find game time. Since becoming a part of the XI, though, McCoy hasn’t had to look back, fulfilling a key role in the Rajasthan bowling setup.
Bowlers with best economy rates in the death in IPL 2022 (min 50 balls bowled)
Jasprit Bumrah: 7.38
Arshdeep Singh: 7.59
Obed McCoy: 8.0
Bhuvneshwar Kumar 8.6
Mohsin Khan: 8.6
“We worked hard on data to work on the players we wanted,” Sangakkara said post the game. The RR head coach underlined the thinking behind bringing a specialist death bowler like McCoy into the setup. With Rajasthan having Trent Boult, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and Prasidh Krishna to bowl through the powerplay and middle overs, a death bowler was crucial to their setup and McCoy fitted into that role to perfection.
Why RR need Ashwin-Chahal to bring back their early season mojo
Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal have taken just one wicket between them in two playoff matches. The spin pair, which worked pretty well for Rajasthan Royals early in the season, are having a bit of a down time with the change in venues.
At the Eden Gardens against Gujarat Titans in the Qualifier 1, Ashwin and Chahal went for 72 runs in eight overs without a single wicket between them.
At Ahmedabad, in the Qualifier 2 game against RCB, the duo went for 76 runs in eight overs with just a solitary wicket. With the venue having bounce and movement, pace came to the fore in Ahmedabad on Friday night, but Rajasthan will want their spinners to step up and bowl less expensive spells even if they don’t take a lot of wickets.
In the league stage of the season, Rajasthan spinners took 39 wickets, the most by any team. It also came at an impressive economy rate of 7.89. In the last two matches that economy rate has shot up to 9.25.
Where did it all go wrong for RCB with the bat?
RCB’s go-slow approach early on once again hurt them as Faf du Plessis and Co made 74 runs in the first 10 overs despite losing only one wicket. On what appeared to be a surface with true bounce and a lush outfield, the scoring rate was below par as Rajasthan Royals showed in the second innings, where they raced to 103/1 in 10 overs. RCB have been guilty of going slow early on right through the season.
In the first 10 overs, RCB’s scoring rate this year is 7.52, the third-worst among teams after Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. While Dinesh Karthik’s antics have helped them make up for it in the second half in the past, it was too risky an approach for a playoffs game where Yuzvendra Chahal stood as a negative matchup for Karthik given his abysmal record against leg spin in the last three seasons.
They compounded their poor approach with the bat with a pathetic powerplay with the ball, conceding 67 off it, including 16 runs in the first over, to all but give up on their chances in the match.
How Jos Buttler has bossed run chases for RR this season
Jos Buttler has had a ridiculous season in IPL 2022, clocking more than 800 runs at an average of over 50 and a strike-rate over 150. While he has made 632 runs while batting first, Buttler has had quite an impact while chasing down runs.
In the four games he batted second, Buttler smashed 192 runs at an average of 64.0 and a strike-rate of 182.9. The strike-rate, in particular, is in contrast to that in the first innings, where he has gone at a rate of 144.0, and even copped a bit of criticism in the last few games for his slow starts.
None of that has mattered in the second innings where he seems to know exactly what to do with a target in sight. Three of his four scores in the second innings this year are above 30 and all of them have come at a strike-rate of over 175 — 54 (24) vs Gujarat Titans, 30 (16) vs Punjab Kings and 106 (69 vs Royal Challengers Bangalore last night.
How bad was Mohammed Siraj’s season for RCB
Mohammed Siraj was retained by RCB ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal, who had served them for several years. The decision was backed by numbers too as Siraj registered the best economy rate in the death overs in IPL 2021 (7.53 runs per over) for bowlers to bowl at least 10 overs. This was complemented by his brilliant economy in the powerplay too: 6.44 in 32 overs.
However, the numbers have taken a serious hit in IPL 2022. Siraj recorded the worst economy rate in IPL 2022 in the powerplay overs — 10.23. In fact, among bowlers to bowl 100 balls in the powerplay in an IPL season, it’s the worst-ever economy rate.
This is also compounded by his lack of effectiveness in the death overs. Siraj bowled only eight overs in the death in IPL 2022, but those went for 118 runs and yielded just one wicket, an economy rate of 14.75, the worst for anyone to bowl as many balls in the phase.
RCB’s decision to sit him out for Siddharth Kaul in the final league game worked well, but they decided to go back to Siraj for the Eliminator and Qualifier 2 and he disappointed both times (4-0-41-1 vs LSG and 2-0-31-0 vs RR).
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