From Rajat’s Raj to Venky’s fire: Top three performers for RCB against RR

It wasn’t one of the easiest outings for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru as they were humbled by Rajasthan Royals in a high-octane clash in Guwahati. Despite the defeat, RCB managed to eke out significant positives and would be eager to build upon that ahead of their crucial clash against Mumbai Indians in less than a day’s time. Before the discussions shift to the challenge against Mumbai, here are RCB’s top three performers against RR:

·      Rajat Patidar – 63 (40)

When the going got tough with wickets constantly falling at one end, RCB needed someone to anchor the innings. It was their captain, Rajat Patidar who took over the responsibility. Showing temperament of the highest order, Patidar hung in the center and weathered the storm with a very calm head around his shoulders. Eventually around the 14th over mark, Patidar had enough of reticence and it was time for him to switch those gears and he went into beast mode straightaway. From the first 22 balls he faced, Patidar garnered just 20 runs. However, in the following 18 balls, he smashed 43 runs, propelling RCB to a fighting stance in the face of desperation.

·      Krunal Pandya – 2/30

At one point in time, when Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was hitting the ball like a man possessed, RCB desperately needed a break. It eventually came in the ninth over when Vaibhav’s shot went all haywire. However, he didn’t just stop there. Pandya went a step further and claimed Shimron Hetmyer on the very next ball. That sudden brake forced Rajasthan Royals to slow things down. From thereon, Pandya finished with figures of 2/30 at an economy rate of 7.25 on a day where the rest of the bowlers were ripped apart.

·      Venkatesh Iyer – 29* (16)

While the RCB batting order went into a slump, they needed a desperate hand to propel themselves to a fighting total. That is when the call to bring on Venkatesh Iyer as an impact player came. Iyer walked in, waited for his chance to hit the ball out of the park and eventually arrived in the final over, hoping to wrest some momentum back in RCB’s favour. He started the final over of the innings with a four and a six, crashing Sandeep Sharma’s decent spell. To cap it all off, he went down the ground in the final ball of the over, whacking another maximum to take RCB past 200, a significant recovery from 125/7.