Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) bowlers were hit to all parts of the ground by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batters in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 clash at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 29. KKR made short work of 183-run target, chasing it down in 16.5 overs. RCB pacers were ineffective barring impact player Vijaykumar Vyshak who conceded 23 runs from his quota of four overs. Former England captain Michael Vaughan made a bold prediction after their performance against KKR saying that it is ‘impossible’ for the Faf du Plessis to end their IPL trophy drought with this bowling attack.
"Impossible for @RCBTweets to win the IPL with this bowling attack," Vaughan posted on 'X'.
Former Indian pacer Irfan Pathan was left unimpressed by RCB's bowling attack and said they need to identify and fix the problems soon.
“RCB really need to sort their bowling,” Pathan wrote on X.
Du Plessis did not introduce spinners during the powerplay overs. Mohammed Siraj was expensive in his first over conceding 18 runs including two sixes and a four off Philip Salt's bat. Sunil Narine went ballistic too and smashed Alzarri Joseph for two sixes. He went after Yash Dayal as well smashing one four and two sixes. KKR were 85 for no loss after powerplay overs.
After two wickets in consecutive overs, RCB could not make a comeback. Joseph returned but was smashed for two sixes and as many fours by Venkatesh Iyer. Siraj went for 46 runs in three overs. Dayal conceded the same in his quota of four overs. Joseph bowled just two overs and conceded 34 runs. Cameron Green was economical in the only over he bowled conceding just seven runs.
Du Plessis defended his decision to not introduce left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar in the powerplay overs.
“You can always know after the game, we can say perhaps try one or two things but the way the two of them (Narine and Slat) were striking the ball, some really good batting there, they put pressure on our bowlers. They hit strong cricket shots and pretty much took the game away. With Narine there, you can't really go to spin, you want to use pace upfront. That's also a really good match-up for Salt and the way he plays. They were excellent, really broke the game in the first six overs,” he said in the post-match presentation.
“We've tried the spinning options with Maxi, the finger-spinners seem to be effective here, but at night there wasn't too much spin, With left-hand, right-hand combination, it's one of those things, you can bowl a spinner. But as you saw when Venky was playing against the left-arm spinner, you feel like it's an easy hit on a small boundary to hit with the spin. Ideally, you want someone who can spin the ball both ways but with the set-up of our team tonight, we didn't have that option,” he added.
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