नवीनतम
RCB eye a smart outing from bowlers
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s desire to make their home-coming a memorable occasion pivots around an experienced bowling unit maintaining its excellent form when they face Gujarat Titans in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
The bowlers played a big hand in RCB taming two traditionally tough opponents in Kolkata and Chennai but now they face a different challenge at home against the Titans.
The Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch has always had this allegiance towards batters, evidenced by the three 260-plus totals here. The short boundaries and a quick outfield add to the misery of the bowlers, but the Royal Challengers will believe that they have two bowlers who can contain batters here — Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
While they have not set the stats chart ablaze, Hazlewood has conceded just 5.37 runs an over in this IPL, while Bhuvneshwar, who returned to the field for the CSK match, has an economy of 6.6. This frugality by their new ball bowlers will be RCB’s biggest asset against Gujarat’s capable top-order.
Captain Shubman Gill and B. Sai Sudharsan have already developed into a good opening pair, and RCB will be eager to prevent their alliance from blossoming through Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar. The Aussie can hit the hard lengths to find disconcerting bounce and Bhuvneshwar can operate in a tight line while troubling the batters with his ability to swing the new ball.
This versatility makes the RCBpace pair a massive threat in most conditions. Yash Dayal, the leftarm pacer, too has grown into a dependable and crafty support bowler to the seniors. However, RCB might feel a bit underwhelming in the spin department with Krunal Pandya and Suyansh Sharma manning that space, and their skills will be put to test.
