IPL 10, Match 17, RCB v RPS: 5 Tracking Points

Both teams entered the match after a troubling past in the last few games, but with Rising Pune Supergiant’s victory, it only means one thing, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s bad run continues and they are now sitting on the bottom of the table. Pune now have the record for defending the lowest total by a visiting team at M. Chinnaswamy. It is also their first win batting first in 10 attempts. RPS only had 161 on the board, and that too came after a lot of effort, Manoj Tiwary’s in particular.

Smith and Dhoni struggled badly, but it seems like they were the only ones to have adapted to the pitch. Jadhav and Watson tried to do the same, but it was too late, and there was no running away from a pitch that slowed down midway. Ben Stokes took 3 for 18 off his four overs – and his wickets included Virat Kohli and Shane Watson. It was thought that RCB had to worry about Imran Tahir in particular, but it was the collective efforts of all bowlers that won RPS the game.

Here are the 5 Tracking Points from Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rising Pune Supergiant:

1. Mysterious Chinnaswamy pitch

During the match against Mumbai Indians, the Chinnaswamy pitch surprised us all. A low scoring game, making the batsmen struggle, welcoming the spinners and the ball hardly coming onto the bat. But today, during the first innings mostly, it looked back to being its old self. There was definitely something for the bowlers, but batting was not difficult if the batsmen applied themselves well. Though it isn’t the same “batting paradise” it used to be, it looked like a good one for a proper bat v ball contest. But in the second innings, 162 looked like a mammoth total. The pitch then became the slowest we had seen so far, and RCB’s decision to chase looked like a big mistake.

2. Herculean task to cross 30 individual runs

In the entire match, no player except Rahul Tripathi could cross 30 runs, which he did by 1 run. The only other player closest to that was Rahane who scored 30. This also suggests that the pitch was best to bat on in the first few overs of the match. Now, if it was the pitch, the dominance of the bowlers or the inability of the batsmen to read the pitch is still a question. But, things are not easy for the batsmen at Chinnaswamy anymore. You’ve got to replicate what Pollard did the other day, or at least try to do it, like Manoj Tiwary did, today.

3. Manoj Tiwary’s heroics push RPS to a fighting total

His cameo of 27 off 11 is what provided RPS a fighting total. And, if you want more proof of how important that knock was, look at the margin of victory for them. RPS won by 27 runs. That was the game for RPS, and a Manoj Tiwary was missing in RCB for them to win. His innings towards the end of the innings is what RPS need more of.

4. RCB’s middle order perishes yet again

After a few early hits from AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli, the match slipped away after they departed. Not because these were big players not present to anchor the innings, but because of the inability of Shane Watson and Kedar Jadhav to keep up with the required run rate. That is when the deficit started to increase, and the pressure on the lower order batsmen did too. The downfall was inevitable after that despite Negi and Binny’s efforts.

5. Stokes, Shardul, Unadkat win it for RPS

In a rare case, it was the RPS bowlers who won it for RPS. They read the conditions well and found the trick to strangle the opposition. The method was to bowl slower back of length deliveries which the RCB batsmen struggled to get away. Credit to Tahir for changing the course of the game and building pressure with a brilliant spell which included the wicket of AB de Villiers. And, Stokes chipped in with major wickets of Kohli and Watson. While, And Unadkat and Thakur, who might have been the major gambles in this game stepped up beautifully too.