Wednesday 18 / September / 2024
IF a man is known by the company he keeps, Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli is incredibly blessed with the plush in the word. The guys he could hang out with for nearly two months are worshipped around the world for the extraordinary things they could conjure up on a cricket ground.
But the unpleasant truth sticks out. Despite having fabulous blokes together in the dressing room, the RCB failed to make the playoff in 2014 and in 2015, after finishing third on the points table, got knocked out in the qualifier.
Such uninspiring history of the past two disappointing seasons looks set to vanish this time around.
The splendid first act scripted by Kohli and AB de Villiers for which youngster Sarfraz Khan delivered the spicy punch hints at fresh, spunky Royal entertainment set to gather momentum as it gets going in the coming days and climaxes on May 29 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai with a brave new history to celebrate for the fans of the Bangalore team as such and the true lovers of the shorter format of the game as a whole.
It’s exciting to think about the prospect of the Tuesday show getting repeated. With Kohli and ABD enjoying being together out in the middle, Chris Gayle looking to make amends, Shane Watson happily finding his feet in the new dugout and short and stocky boy amid giants sending out buddy-goody vibes all around, season nine could be a long, loud celebration for the RCB fans, from start to finish.
If Kohli is upbeat about the company he keeps and finds himself enviably posh and delightfully above the line of poverty, Sunrisers skipper David Warner stands deep below the line of poverty (BPL), obviously disgusted with the mates he chose to swing with.
One of the first few things for the Sunrisers to get right to chase a target of 228 was a good start. That meant Warner and Shikhar Dhawan should take the fight to the opposition and give the rivals a scare. While Warner played his part to perfection, Dhawan lacked all that required to play the role.
What Warner needed as he tore into the RCB attack was more than moral support from his partner, but Dhawan seemed happy taking singles, leaving it to his skipper to do the dirty, daring job. Rotating the strike is fine, but it is when both batsmen rotate hitting the big runs, chases, like the one the Sunrisers were up against at M Chinnaswamy stadium, looks possible. Dhawan, at the moment, seems to have forgotten who he really was.
The competition for the RCB came from within, and that was the best part of the day for the noisy Kohli-ABD fans who thronged the stadium. The loss of Gayle in the second over when the score was just 6 would have put spokes in the RCB wheels—unless the man at the crease was Kohli and the guy who joined him was ABD.
ABD was in his mettle soon, hitting Ashish Nehra for two fours and a six in the fourth over, which set the tone of the feast on offer. The South African raced past the 25 runs mark in the next over, inspiring Kohli to catch up with. From then on it was a game of one racing ahead and the other catching up with, and the roles reversed frequently to spice things up for the players and the fans in an amazing display of batting together.
ABD reached 50 with a four off Ashish Reddy in the 11th over, and celebrated it smashing the next ball to the long-on rope. Kohli marked his half century with a six over long-on in the 13th over, and by the end of the next over, 14th, both were level at 68. That was surely, as ABD put it at the end of the match, “a nice, busy innings with Virat”.
With Mitchell Starc unavailable owing to ankle surgery, the RCB look a bit vulnerable in the bowling department. But if the top four — Gayle, Kohli, ABD and Watson — get in gear, and Sarfraz steps on the pedal in the death overs, there’s no doubt about a place in the playoff for RCB.
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The writer is a freelance contributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman
