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Barring Virat Kohli, who has 319 runs under his belt at a strike rate of 141, the rest have failed to shoulder responsibility. If other players don’t raise their game, and quickly at that, RCB can kiss their playoff hopes goodbye.
However, they will strive for a collective display when they face Sunrisers Hyderabad, who come into this fixture with back-to-back wins, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday.
A win here could be the turnaround Faf du Plessis and his men are looking for.
It would be fair to say that RCB’s big guns have let them down in batting, which is regarded as their forte. The failures of Glenn Maxwell (32 runs) – who is likely to play on Monday though he suffered a thumb injury in the last game – Cameron Green (68) and Rajat Patidar (100) stand out. Dinesh Karthik (143) has done reasonably well as a finisher while Faf Du Plessis (170) will have to find his last season’s dominating form quickly.
To make matters worse, their bowlers haven’t come to the party yet. For, when RCB scored 196/8 in their previous match, Mumbai Indians reached the target with 27 balls to spare.
There is not a single RCB bowler who figures in the top 20 of the highest wicket-takers this season.
Yash Dayal tops RCB’s charts with five wickets. With Mohammed Siraj (4 wickets) not at his best and big-money signing Alzarri Joseph (1 wicket) being a flop, their search for a match-winning bowler continues.
Reece Topley, after coming in for Joseph, has been a better choice though. The lack of quality spinners is also a concern.
These are not good signs especially against the aggressive approach of the SRH batters this season. They have scored over 200 runs twice in the competition, including IPL’s highest score of 277/3 against Mumbai. Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen are in good form and will be keen to make the shorter boundaries here count against a diffident RCB bowling line-up.
SRH, who have six points, with bowlers like Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, make them a strong all-round team.
All in all, it will be an uphill task for the hosts to come back in the tournament.
