A soft target for Bangalore

Well as long as there are teams like the Rajasthan Royals, teams like Royal Challengers Bangalore have hardly any sort of problem. Can anyone of you imagine a total of just 130 in a T20 game and that too by a team that involves a batsman who has set the record for scoring the fastest hundred in the IPL? Can anyone of you imagine a team to have 4 wickets in hand at the end of their 20^th over and yet end up scoring just over six runs an over? Yes, that is the Rajasthan Royals for you. The team which won 11 out of the 14 games scheduled and the title a couple of years back.

The eitire innings of the Rajasthan Royals had only one hit out of the stands when Abhishek Raut hit the lone six of the innings. Coincidentally, he was also the top scorer of the match when he score an unbeaten 32 runs to push the run rate past 6 an over. All the Royal Challengers Bangalore required was just 5 bowlers all of whom bowled their full quota of 4 overs each. This can happen only when the opposition batsmen offer no resistance and challenge as well. If not for Anil Kumble, all other bowlers returned with wickets against their names.

However, this doesn't matter much for cricket is a team game unlike badminton or tennis that is played between two individuals. Luckily, there was also an over maiden which belonged to Pankaj Singh. Overs rarely go maiden as far as a T20 game is concerned. However, one cannot blame it completely on the Rajasthan Royals' batsmen for their debacle, for even the Royal Challengers Bangalore followed a callous approach when they lost 5 wickets enroute to their successful run chase of 131 runs. Nevermind that the Bangalore team reached the winning run in just over 15 overs, but it is the approach which makes the difference.

It is such games that come crucial in terms of a tie breaker when two or more teams end up with equal number of points. One fascinating thing about the Rajasthan Royals bowlers was that they never bowled an extra delivery for an innings that lasted close to a hundred deliveries long. Even the Rajasthan Royals followed their opposition when even they like their opposition never handed the ball to a sixth bowler with 3 of the 5 bowlers set to bowl their complete quota of 4 overs. Yousuf Pathan would have come in handy in such cases and Adam Voges being given another chance would not have proved costly.

At the end of the day, there was a bad match for cricket fans who want some decent action from the batsmen especially.