On Wednesday, April 26, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team lost to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team for the second time in IPL 2023. They were defeated by 21 runs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. As KKR scored 200/5 in 20 overs, RCB’s bowlers blew hot and cold after choosing to field first.
Even though the slower pitches gripped a dry pitch, it was a decent batting track. Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell fell in the powerplay as a result of the chase’s inability to keep up. Virat Kohli, who captained the hosts once more, kept the innings intact with a 37-ball 54 as Mahipal Lomror contributed with a 18-ball 34.
However, once their partnership was severed, everything fell apart, and KKR held their own to win. Here, we take apart two errors and one masterstroke made by RCB as they lost their third home game in six IPL 2023 matches at the M Chinnaswamy Arena.
3) Bowling Shahbaz Ahmed in the sixth over was a mistake.
Shahbaz Ahmed had only bowled three overs in seven IPL 2023 matches prior to the match against KKR. None of them had seen him bowl more than one over.
Kohli’s decision to give Jason Roy the ball for the final powerplay over was bizarre because of this and the fact that he was well-set and firing on all cylinders.
As Roy butchered him for four sixes to shift the momentum in his favor, things went wrong. The decision to bowl Shahbaz in the most difficult powerplay over didn’t look any better as RCB fought back in the middle overs.
Mohammed Siraj was an option because of how well he has played this season, but they didn’t bowl his third over because they had to backload some of his spell.
However, there were still a lot of other options. Perhaps because there were two right-handed batters in the middle, bowling the left-arm spinner backfired severely for RCB.
2) Masterstroke – The utilization of Wanindu Hasaranga’s overs
When Kohli used Wanindu Hasaranga in the fifth over to try to get past Roy’s defense, he used his strike weapon correctly. The Brit battled for enormous pieces of that over prior to taking care of one to the wall as a converse scope.
During his spell, Hasaranga bowled nagging lengths, but he wisely saved an over for the destructive Andre Russell. Kohli, however, turned to Hasaranga for the 18th over because the Jamaican was still unable to bat. Hasaranga promptly took two wickets and scored just three runs.
With both Roy and Russell known to find it harder against turn, Kohli’s use of Hasaranga was right on the money.
1) Botch – The batting sequence
The batting order of RCB was scrutinized once more. At No. 1, Shahbaz, who has struggled to counter spin, was persevered with. 3 after the departure of Du Plessis in the third over.
It would have made sense to hold the southpaw back for that portion of the innings given his prowess against pace in the second half of the innings last year and Dinesh Karthik’s diminishing finishing abilities. All the more so with Suyash Prabhudessai being a contender to bring down turn and possess the spot that would have been held by Rajat Patidar in an optimal situation.
Mahipal Lomror was able to effectively counter KKR’s 13 overs of spin, but the others were not up to the task from RCB’s perspective. Goodness, and it was one more day where they might have supported Hasaranga the request to refute the spinners.
It wasn’t to be, however, as they gave up their third home round of the time.