Yet another Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign has come to a disappointing end for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The star-studded team failed to get past the group stage for the second season running despite possessing some of the most destructive T20 batsmen. Captain Virat Kohli and South African great A B de Villiers tried their best to revive RCB's fortunes and almost brought them to the verge of play-off. But a reversal at the hands of Rajasthan Royals in a must-win game in Jaipur on Saturday brought the curtains down on RCB.
It was the genius of Kohli and de Villiers along with some fine pace bowling by Umesh Yadav which kept RCB in the race for a play-off spot. But on a slow wicket at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, two Karnataka spinners Shreyas Gopal and Krishnappa Gowtham combined to deliver the knockout punch on RCB.
The RCB line-up lacked balance with the team overly dependent on Kohli and de Villiers. The RCB middle order did not really click this time around too.
Problem area
Success in the IPL comes with a balanced bowling attack and sadly RCB came up short in this area. There was not a single go-to bowler for Kohli when the pressure was really on. True, Umesh was in his element and picked up crucial wickets, but he too went for plenty at the death.
The RCB think tank consisting of Kohli, head coach Daniel Vettori, batting coach Gary Kirsten and bowling coach Ashish Nehra took a long time to find the best possible eleven. RCB opened with South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock and Kiwi Brendon McCullum in the early part of the tournament and with de Villiers a certainty there was only one slot for another overseas player in the eleven. English all-rounder Chris Woakes did not really pull his weight and de Villiers missing a couple of games due to fever did not help their cause either.
Big mistake
The Bangalore outfit never really had any momentum going till the fag end. In hindsight, RCB would have rued the decision to let go of local boy K L Rahul and retain Sarfaraz Khan. Rahul has been batting like a dream in the ongoing IPL, while the young Sarfaraz has to work big time on his game and fielding in particular.
The very fact that they crashed without winning even half the number of games in the group phase (RCB could muster up only six wins out of 14) would rankle Kohli and Co.
Fielding was another area which hurt RCB big time. Murugan Ashwin missed a sitter in a key encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders and Chris Lynn made the most of it to guide them home.
One can fathom the frustrations of RCB faithfuls and hopefully the players as well as the management would have taken note of what went wrong and return strongly next season. As for Kohli, the wait to lay his hands on the coveted title continues.
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