On Saturday evening, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered a thrashing 6-wicket defeat (with 12 balls to spare) against the hosts Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium (Pune).
CSK captain MS Dhoni forced RCB to bat first after winning the toss. Due to major batting failure, RCB only managed to score 127/9 in 20 overs.
In reply, CSK secured a comfortable victory after successfully chased the target in 18 overs by losing 4 wickets.
Now, we will briefly talk about some important reasons for RCB’s defeat in this game.
Also read: Match 35 (CSK vs RCB) – Hits and Flops
Batting failure
RCB suffered a major batting collapse in their innings. Apart from opener Parthiv Patel and no.8 batsman Tim Southee, none of the other RCB batsmen even reached the double-digit score. Star batsmen Brendon McCullum (5 runs), skipper Virat Kohli (8) and AB de Villiers (1) were dismissed for cheaply in that innings.
While every other batsman was dismissed cheaply, wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel played a brilliant 53-run knock off 41 balls. Still, that knock RCB was once 89/8 before their lower-order batsmen Tim Southee and Mohammed Siraj provided a crucial 38-run partnership for the ninth wicket as the team succeeded to cross the 100-run mark. Southee remained unbeaten on 36 runs as RCB somehow get a respected total.
Not going with attacking bowling option
Defending a low total, RCB should go with the attacking bowling options. However, observing the recent bowling form in the death over, RCB captain hold his main bowlers for the death overs and that punished them too much.
While CSK was losing wickets quickly at the middle stage and came a little bit under pressure, Kohli held on in-form Umesh Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Though most other bowlers did their job well but failed to take more wickets as CSK batsmen failed less pressurized against them. To create a panic at that important moment, the best option is always to use the main bowlers who are able to create the pressure regularly against strong batting line-up.
Also read: (CSK vs RCB) – Turning Point of the Match
When CSK was under pressure, Yuzvendra Chahal dropped a good chance of Dwayne Bravo at the sweeper cover boundary. It could be 85/5 (13.3 overs) at that period while Bravo would return to the pavilion for just 1 run. If Chahal could take the catch, it could raise a huge pressure in the lower-batting line-up that can lead the panic.
Apart from that, RCB fielders should be more cautious on the field as they leaked some useful runs in that innings.
