Waiting for the other 'Royals' - pre Rajasthan game

RCBians train like the fury.

After the finish of the 4 pm match against
Chennai at about 7:30 pm on Saturday, the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s first
day-nighter this season, the team felt hard done by their own performances but
seemed to view things in the right perspective. Hard work and self analysis
would be the trend in the next two days but first they needed to head out early
to catch a morning flight to Bengaluru.

There was a delayed departure and during
that, the team was serviced in the Kingfisher airport lounge. Manager Vaidya
was his usual preoccupied self with logistics while Asad Pathan sought the
company of various friends to discuss tidbits of the last two days development.
Anil Kumble too absorbed himself in analysis with Ray Jennings. AB de Villiers
and Johan Var der Wath found a table near the buffet area, but their challenge
was to balance eating with photograph requests from staff! The poor guys are
not spared anywhere but of  course this
was a milder form of requesting and not the mobbing that happens outside. But,
these cricketers are great guys and rarely have a cross word for anyone, always
obliging photo hunters.

Back in Bengaluru on Sunday, the cricketers
rested till about 5 pm and off went one bunch to the Chinnaswamy Stadium along
with coach Jennings, assistant Jono and bowling coach Venky Prasad. Ray emphasised
there would be no leniency towards anybody not giving his utmost in the field,
at the bare minimum at least to move towards the swirling ball in the air. If
there were to be errors in the field, then the team had better make up by
bowling 4 overs with dot balls! The lads understood and went about their
fielding workouts passionately.

Three groups were made with Ray giving high
catches to one, while physio Evans Peechley hit away at another lot. Former
international Vijay Bhardadwaj, now responsible for tapping talent from the
catchment area, conducted fielding and throw-in drills with another group. Jono
assisted him with his mitt.

About 20 minutes later, the groups swapped
drills. Under the floodlights, the entire session seemed to be almost perfectly
simulated to a match situation. After practice, the players got back to the
hotel for an early night.

Come morning and coach Jennings was his
usual self, hitting the gym no later than 8 am for a cardio workout along with
his wife. The Jennings certainly set the standards! Chaarl Langveldt too
arrived and so did a few more RCBians before hitting the showers and a heavy
breakfast buffet. A morning team meet will be followed by a Yoga session and
practice in the evening.

Coach Ray, “We’ll surprise those fans who
didn’t think so much of our game, but it was nice to get support from the
majority of our fans on the website. Keep it coming.”

- RCB Web Crew - Vikram Afzulpurkar, Abhishek Shivram, Kalveer Biradar