IPL 2020: 3 Mistakes committed by the losing side in RCB vs KXIP

Royal Challengers Bangalore lost their third game of the tournament as KXIP defeated them by 8 wickets. The match was at Sharjah and unlike the recent trend, the pitch didn’t assist the spinners in the second innings. RCB opted to bat first and scored a decent total of 171 in their 20 overs.

While defending the same, KXIP planned the chase exceptionally well. However, RCB made a stunning comeback in the last two overs, but Nicholas Pooran’s last-ball six didn’t allow them to steal the show. RCB have so many questions to answer after this loss as their several decisions came under scrutiny.

Here are the three mistakes committed by RCB in Match 31, RCB vs KXIP:-

1. Demoting AB de Villiers

RCB’s biggest strength is their top order and Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are the main pillars of it. de Villiers was also the Man of the Match for them in their last game and yet RCB demoted their most destructive batsman to number 6. Though it was done due to his poor record against wrist spinners but a batsman of de Villiers’ calibre can be extremely dangerous against any bowling line up once he is set and RCB missed a trick by sending him lower down the order.

2. Poor bowling rotation

RCB’s skipper, Virat Kohli made several blunders in his bowling rotation. Washington Sundar, the most effective powerplay bowler of IPL 2020 wasn’t used in the first six overs. Yuzvendra Chahal and Isuru Udana were held back and Mohammad Siraj was given an over at the death despite his dismal record. The failure in rotating the bowlers can be understood by the fact that Udana and Chahal were left with two and one overs respectively in such a close game.

3. No acceleration during the middle overs

RCB started their innings at a perfect scoring rate and scored 57 runs in the first 6 overs. However, they went into a shell after that and in the next 8 overs, only 46 runs were scored. This didn’t allow them to score more than 200 runs and with 171 runs on board, KXIP had a great chance of chasing it down. If Virat Kohli and the left-handers would have played some attacking cricket in the middle overs, RCB could have finished with 15-20 runs more, which could have been crucial.