At some point during the Qualifier 2 on Friday night, Rajat Patidar was in his zone. The helmet was off, the timing was bang on, and he had just deposited Yuzvendra Chahal for six over long-on.
That shot was the onset of a dominant phase of play for Royal Challengers Bangalore. From overs 9-13, they scored 49 runs for the loss of Faf du Plessis’ wicket. Patidar unleashed an array of strokes, as did Glenn Maxwell, and at the 13th’s end, the scorecard read 107-2.
Things looked rosy for Bangalore at that stage – they had made a quick recovery after Virat Kohli’s early dismissal, negotiated the movement off the powerplay overs, and then accelerated. Given how the Eliminator turned out, the Bangalore line-up looked set to launch another scathing finishing attack on the bowlers. Only, it didn’t happen, as RCB crashed to 157-8.
The last seven overs resulted in 50-6. If you look across RCB’s innings on Friday, it summed up their 2022 IPL season. A lack of consistency from top-to-middle-order, a couple of dominant streaks and then a lot of crashing – this is a team that scored the lowest total this season. In fact, it has two out of the six lowest scores in IPL 2022, and you can see why RCB needed a lot of luck getting into the knockouts in the first place.
And that’s the thing about these playoffs – for those just sneaking in at the third and/or fourth spots, there is never a second chance. You cannot depend on another side’s ill-luck to scrape past. You have to bring your A-game every damn day or go home. Bangalore did just that against Lucknow Super Giants, showcasing what they could do on their day. Then, against Rajasthan Royals, they also showed what happens when luck finally runs out.
Of course, it would be unfair to put Rajasthan’s victory solely down to luck. Jos Buttler striking his fourth hundred this season was calculative destruction. He had worked himself into hitting form against Gujarat Titans, despite the loss, and came to the fore against Bangalore. In a way, he sent out a threatening message to the Titans for Sunday’s summit clash. Buttler, when playing clutch knocks that give him 89 off 56 balls and 106* off 60 balls, is doubly dangerous than when he attacks from the word go. Not to mention, he is the best T20 batsman in the world currently.
Gujarat has been warned prior, and so was Bangalore. And after 13 overs, for a moment, it did seem that Buttler needed to turn up for Rajasthan to have any chance. That’s where Rajasthan’s other key aspect – its bowling attack – came to the fore, and at the right time.
Let it be said here first that Rajasthan’s spinners are struggling a bit. In the Titans game, Yuzvendra Chahal-Ravichandran Ashwin combined for 0-72 in 8 overs. Through this IPL season, it was another rare instance that neither spinner picked wickets in a game. In fact, it happened only once during the league stage when Kolkata Knight Riders won by seven wickets on 2 May. Through the league stage, this duo had combined for 38 wickets, and they have only managed to add one more scalp in the last two games.
Just like the Titans, Bangalore also found a way against Chahal-Ashwin, smacking them for 1-76 in eight overs. Clearly, these two spinners are finding it tough on the newer, bouncier, flatter Kolkata and Ahmedabad wickets. And this is where Rajasthan’s pacers made a crucial difference.
Prasidh Krishna had a woeful outing at the Eden Gardens. Bowling at the death, he put three deliveries straight into David Miller’s arc and was strung out over the boundary. He isn’t an out-and-out death bowler, and that was some poor captaincy from Sanju Samson. However, the underlying point is that Krishna made a stellar comeback two days later to propel his side into the final.
His first five deliveries only gave away one run, but more importantly pulled Kohli into a high cut, outside off. It was a notable dismissal, for Krishna is consistently getting the better of him in their duels. But also, because the Motera wicket had a spongy bounce to it, which Rajasthan’s new-ball bowlers exploited to a large extent.
Krishna’s spell combined well with Obed McCoy’s self-recovery. His is a peculiar case – on most occasions, he looks like a weak bowler, who can be taken for runs at any time in his four-over spell. You can say that with nearly 60 percent confidence for any over he bowls, and that has been weirdly on display throughout this season. It was certainly so against the Titans as well, and there have been obvious calls to bring in back Kuldeep Sen if Rajasthan could agree to compromise on the left-arm pacer angle.
McCoy brought out his 40-percent against Bangalore on Friday then, much to their presumable chagrin. Both Krishna and McCoy used the bounce to great advantage as they hurried on Bangalore’s middle-order batsmen. If Krishna bowled with measurable accuracy – what a fantastic yorker to Wanindu Hasranga! – McCoy was able to hurry the batsmen into making high-risk mistakes at the death.
If Buttler batted with calculative destruction, as is his wont, then McCoy-Krishna tied rings around Bangalore’s batting. The death knell wasn’t Buttler’s century, for Faf’s own admission meant that 180 could have been a par score for this pitch. A lack of calculative finishing at the death, triggered by Rajasthan’s bowling, proved fatal.
Perhaps it also taught Royal Challengers Bangalore a vital lesson, once again. You cannot win the IPL riding just on luck.
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