Siraj took two wickets and led the bowling effort at M Chinnaswamy Stadium usually seen as a bowlers’ graveyard.
For the first six overs of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) reply, the ball was travelling to all parts of the stadium. The home team were running away with the match on 92/1 after the powerplay, chasing 148. So dominant were they, and GT bowlers so listless, that RCB got greedy. They decided to push for an early win in a bid to boost their net run rate.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s skipper Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli during the match against Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League 2024.(ANI )
Perhaps late, but Titans woke up to the possibility of using the short ball, which was their undoing while batting. Irish left-arm seamer Josh Little, playing the season’s first match, was the only serious bowling option GT had to execute the short-ball ploy. Rajat Patidar and Glenn Maxwell in the 8th over, Cameron Green in the 10th, all holed out trying to attack Little’s short ball. His 4-0-45-4 almost forced RCB off their perch. When Noor Ahmed’s wrong ’un got the set Virat Kohli 42 (27b), RCB were 117/6 and there was panic in the dugout.
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But Dinesh Karthik’s calm 21* (12b) and Swapnil Singh 15* (9b) saved the day as RCB kept their slim playoff hopes alive with a four-wicket win achieved in the 14th over on Saturday.
SIRAJ FINDS RHYTHM
World Cup-bound Mohammed Siraj rediscovered his lengths (4-0-29-2) on a M Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch that had some life in the first half, for a change. Whether it was the effect of the pitch having been under covers due to rain, the grass on the pitch wasn’t just cosmetic. RCB bowlers made the most of the two-paced pitch, using short deliveries to peg back the visitors in the powerplay.
Not for the first time, GT endured another poor powerplay with fewest runs – 23/3. Against Delhi Capitals at home, they had only managed 30/4. Even for a bowling-heavy side, GT’s middling performances with the bat have been piling on their agony.
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Wriddhiman Saha has been Siraj’s bunny and it took no time for the India pacer to catch Saha’s (1) outside edge. Soon, Shubman Gill cut a desolate figure after another failure, his waft on two against Siraj ending up in the hands of point. For a batter who plundered runs at will, 890 last edition, Gill’s indifferent season as captain will add to his misery. After the Hardik Pandya transfer, GT has been without a middle-overs insurance cover and more reliant on Gill than before. But he has been hesitant on which approach to take, leading to his undoing on quite a few occasions.
Then Sai Sudharsan (6) fell to Cameron Green’s extra bounce and Shahrukh Khan (37) was run out by Kohli.
GT could never truly recover. Rahul Tewatia did try and push the scoring rate, going particularly hard against leg-spinner Karn Sharma. With a 4-4-6-4, he took 19 runs off the 16th over. But the finishing kick never came as GT folded up for 147 in 19.3 overs.
EXPENSIVE MOHIT
There’s a fine line between trusting an old warhorse and being obsessive with that. For GT it was the experienced medium-pacer Mohit Sharma, who had gone for 19-runs-per-over in the last six overs he has bowled in the past two matches. Gill handed him the first over. Kohli and Faf du Plessis though were far too experienced and transferred the heat on Mohit.
Kohli took the lead hitting two sixes, over long-off and mid-wicket. In Mohit’s next over, du Plessis plundered him around the park for four boundaries. Mohit had again gone for 16-an-over. Powered by du Plessis’ brisk 64 (23b), RCB batters stepped on the gas. Their decision to go into overdrive in the middle-overs almost cost them the match though.
The day began with Sunil Gavaskar raising the heat, taking on Virat Kohli’s criticism of those who spoke ‘from the box’ questioning his strike-rate against spin. “If you have a strike of 118 and then you get out in the 14th or the 15th with a strike-rate of 118, I mean, if you want applause for that, that’s a little bit different,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports. “We don’t have agendas.”
Kohli again showed good intent against GT’s spinners, although he couldn’t stay unbeaten. We may not have heard the last of Kohli and his batting strike rate.
