Synopsis: Hazlewood sets the tone with a classic opening spell featuring Test-match length before LSG get no respite in the middle overs. Kohli then takes pacers down in the Powerplay to set up a facile five-wicket win for RCB.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru are playing like the IPL champions they are. Long considered a ‘batting’ team, their bowling came to the fore on Wednesday as a seemingly sleep-walking Lucknow Super Giants were put to the sword at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. A target of 147 was never going to challenge the home team as they cantered home to a five-wicket win with as many as 29 balls to spare and climbed to the top of the points table.
Hazlewood sets the tone
The oft-repeated maxim about batting in Test cricket is to give the first hour to the bowlers, to ensure that you could prosper later. For a large part of the LSG innings, it seemed that they were following the same script in T20 cricket.
Josh Hazlewood in action. (FILE photo)
For sure, it was not intentional and the quality of the RCB attack had a lot to do with it. But there seemed a distinct lack of urgency in the LSG ranks even before they lost a wicket. Josh Hazlewood, returning to the team, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave away precious little and followed by Rasikh Dar, ensured that the visitors couldn’t even get a run a ball in the Powerplay, most of them coming in uncertain fashion.
The man to set the tempo was the tall Australian quick. It seemed that prior knowledge about where Hazlewood would land the ball made the batters none the wiser about how to deal with him. His high release point and the bounce he gets make them reluctant to get on the front foot, but their repeated attempts at cross-batted whacks didn’t bear fruit. The batters were rushed and repeatedly took body blows with skipper Rishabh Pant having to retire hurt after taking a hit near the back elbow.
Hazlewood’s initial spell (three overs conceding 10 runs and getting Nicholas Pooran’s scalp) wouldn’t have been out of place with the new red ball in a Test match.
Bhuvneshwar and Dar were no slouches either, but it was Hazlewood who set up the game for RCB. The two Indians gave nothing away at the death either, nailing yorkers one after another as the furniture was disturbed on a regular basis.
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Spinners bring no respite
It was not a typical Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch and slowed down as the first innings progressed. There was a hint of turn as well, which was expertly exploited by Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma. The latter finished wicket-less, but had the batters – especially Mitchell Marsh – clueless on how to deal with his googly. The Australian was lucky to get an inside edge on one in the leg-spinner’s first over, and then barely survived an LBW appeal to one that slid on.
Krunal was his street-smart self and kept the batters honest with his variations. Marsh, the highest contributor for LSG, dragged one on when the left-arm spinner virtually bowled a side-arm delivery wide of the stumps. The low trajectory didn’t allow the Australian to get under the ball as he attempted to get a move on after the first strategy break.
Abdul Samad was a victim of classic left-arm spin. The ball drifted towards leg-stump and the batter played a bit too soon, closing the face of the bat for a simple catch at cover.
There was the Krunal bouncer on display as well, and the batters didn’t seem to have any idea what was coming next. There were three sixes and two fours in his spell, but if LSG were trying to make up for a slow start, it wasn’t to be in the middle overs.
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Kohli guides the chase
Phil Salt has been the RCB aggressor at the top of the order in the earlier games, but he departed early. A modest chase allowed Virat Kohli to play without any major run-rate pressure. Once a flurry of boundaries inside the Powerplay had basically decided the outcome of the match – Kohli upsetting the rhythm of Mohammed Shami and Prince Yadav by stepping out to hit over the off-side, prompting the bowlers to shorten their length and feeding him on the legside – he settled into his usual game of rotating strike and running hard between wickets.
Virat Kohli in action. (FILE photo)
Recognising where Hazlewood pitched to get optimum results, Kohli ensured the LSG bowlers strayed from that spot. The veteran had been under the weather for the last few days and was also carrying a niggle in his knee, but Wednesday’s outing under moderate pressure is likely to hold him in good stead for the games to come.
It was then left to skipper Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma to bring a swift end to proceedings and give the team a nice net-run-rate boost.
Brief scores: Lucknow Super Giants 146 all out in 20 overs (Marsh 40, Mukul Choudhary 39, Badoni 38; Rasikh Salam 4/24, Bhuvneshwar 3/27, Krunal 2/38, Hazlewood 1/20) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru 149 in 15.1 overs (Kohli 49; Prince Yadav 3/32, Avesh Khan 2/23) by five wickets
