KS Bharat solves RCB's long-standing No. 3 quandary in style

After a match-saving and heroic knock that saw his team rush past the winning line at the last moment, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s No. 3 KS Bharat thanked senior partner Glenn Maxwell for instilling in him the requisite confidence to ace a tall challenge with stoic calm.

The situation Bharat found himself in was by no means easy. After the nerve-jangling victory, RCB skipper Virat Kohli admitted he was happy to have defeated the Delhi Capitals, the table-toppers, twice this year. “It feels good to know that we’ve beaten them twice this season. There’s a reason why they are top of the table because they have been the strongest team so far in the tournament and to pull off a win like that against them who have the bowlers to keep things under control is great.”

Kohli was correct. The Capitals have well and truly looked like the team to beat this season across both legs. They have completed doubles over both Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings in the same season, an unprecedented feat. And perhaps on the checklist, no team this year has ticked as many boxes as the Capitals have.

On Friday, RCB were chasing a tricky 165. The most treacherous aspect of chasing in-between totals like these is maintaining the tempo correctly. It isn’t 200 that needs a batting unit to go bang-bang from the start, it isn’t 120 either where the batters can relaxingly score the way they please. The start for the RCB was ominous: they were jolted early by Anrich Nortje, not once but twice, with both Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal back in the hut within the first three overs.

Enter KS Bharat in the scorching heat of Dubai, with the scoreboard reading 6/2. Suddenly the 165 appears a lot bigger than it did a few moments ago. Nortje has rattled the top-order in just his initial burst and the potent unit that the Capitals are, their bowling stocks just don’t end. One goes, comes another. He did well to maneuver the Nortje threat who unfurled a good mix of shorter ones and yorkers to test Bharat’s mettle.

There wasn’t a respite from the other end, with Kagiso Rabada and Avesh Khan operating alongside. But Bharat, who “loves fast bowling”, of course, was not going to budge. “I love fast bowling, to be honest. I have played for India A and am also a part of the Indian team, you get to play with the best bowlers in the country. It wasn’t a surprise element for me to play pace,” he said in a virtual press conference. “I would love someone who is giving pace so that you can work the ball instead of hitting the ball hard. I found it really interesting and I was enjoying the challenge.”

After the initial setback, Bharat rebuilt with a master at the other end, AB de Villiers, who has not been at the best of his abilities of late. When de Villiers, having added 49 for the third wicket, departed for a run-a-ball 26 courtesy of Axar Patel, RCB were 55/3, at a fair distance from the target with half the overs left.

To their pleasure, there was Glenn Maxwell yet to come. Doing what he has done so effectively this year, he once again scored runs at will, notching his fourth half-century in just the UAE leg. But he wasn’t to play the lead role on the night. By now the confidence has seeped through and Bharat knew the in and outs of the track.

His unbeaten 52-ball 78 had three fours and four sixes, judiciously scored off every bowler he faced. But it takes only a blink for momentum to sway in this game of glorious uncertainties. The situation was distilled down to 15 off 6 in the face of a dominating partnership between Maxwell and Bharat.

To defend it for his team was Avesh Khan, unarguably one of the most impressive of the season. He was smacked for a boundary over mid-off on the first ball by Maxwell. He would redeem himself by bringing it down to 6 needed off the last delivery. A wide made it 5, but there was still only one way left for an RCB win: a six.

Khan is the second-leading wicket-taker of the season, having dismissed MS Dhoni twice and Virat Kohli too. But what was Bharat thinking all the while? “I was just focused on one ball which is coming next. rather than thinking of too many things.”

His calmness ensured that despite defending 6 off the last ball, it was Avesh Khan who was under pressure, not him. And then arrived the fourth and final six of his knock, a full toss dispatched over the head of the bowler straight down the ground to pull off a victory that had seemingly started to slip out of hands.

“The last over… me and Maxi were talking about what are the areas we can access. He said, watch the ball and get bat on the ball… The last 3 balls, you know I asked him whether to run, he said ‘no, you can finish it off,” Bharat revealed of his conversation with Maxwell.

In a season where RCB has managed to find many answers, KS Bharat has quite adeptly answered their long-standing No. 3 question in style.