IPL 10, Match 43, Who Said What - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kings XI Punjab

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s season has gone from bad to worse as they have simply failed to play a single game like a team and have completely missed the intent required to win a match comprehensively in this edition of the Indian Premier League. Despite big stars like AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli in the line-up, they have failed to inspire that belief to beat the opposition.

Kings XI Punjab were down on their knees batting first with constant fall of wickets but a cameo from Axar Patel who scored 38 from 17 balls got them to 138 which though didn’t look par gave their bowlers something to run in with. Sandeep Sharma who dismantled the Delhi Daredevils in their previous encounter was up for the task yet again.

He had Gayle in his first over, Virat in the second and de Villiers in his third over to push RCB on the back foot right at the start. Mandeep Singh who has been out of form this season finally got some runs under his belt and with a small target, it looked like RCB might still manage to win till the time he was there at the crease.

An irresponsible shot against the Kings’ skipper Glenn Maxwell not only cost him his wicket but drowned RCB’s hopes. Pawan Negi, in the end, tried his bit but his 21 wasn’t enough to win them the game tonight as he had no support from the other end. As it turns out the Royal Challengers have lost all the inspiration and want the season to end as soon as possible.

For his brilliant bowling spell up front where he determined the fate of the game, Sandeep Sharma was awarded the Man of the Match. He finished with figures of 4-0-22-3.

He said: “It is making me feel great (about picking three great T20 strikers). It is a dream come true for me, getting those key wickets. I’m very happy. I have been talking to my coaches especially Viru who told me to swing the ball both-ways and pitch it up. Any batsman will find it difficult to tackle swing. I hold a good record against them (Gayle and Kohli) and I’m happy I got them again.

It was not a typical Bangalore wicket, it was not that flat, but there is assistance for the bowlers. Next two games, we are playing in Mohali that is my home ground. Bangalore is my second home ground I’ve always done well here also. I’m just hoping that we do well and win the remaining games to qualify for the playoffs.”

With this win Kings XI Punjab now have 5 wins after 10 matches and with 4 games to go still have a chance of ending up in the top four. Given their recent form one would get a feeling that Glenn Maxwell & Co. are peaking just at the right time.

“We did really well. I think as far as history is concerned, I thought we did well. Axar’s innings got us to the score which we thought we can defend. We bowled some loose balls, but still to defend that score against the quality of batting RCB have is just superb.

Sandeep Sharma has been amazing in the last 2 games. To get those 3 out in the tournament is a big thing, having all of them in one innings is just brilliant. We probably were a little bit patchy with the bat. We gotta play well in the remaining games especially we are gonna play some quality sides. The highest score batting first here is 161, we thought of putting up 180 on the board.

Axar Patel’s little cameo helped us post a decent score on the board. Two games in Mohali, that probably suits our bowlers and with big boundaries the spinners will come into play. Axar has a great record there. As a bowling group, we want to continue doing well,” Maxwell said.

A disappointed Virat Kohli had little to say, his expressions while fielding towards the end of the inning said it all he was angry but had little control over the proceedings.

“It’s disheartening, I don’t know what to say about games like these anymore. Happening far too many times for our liking, something we are not able to change. Anything we do is not working out. The whole squad is playing in that zone. We are not able to get a big score. Someone is playing well and others aren’t, and losing wickets in a hurry.

I can’t really pinpoint anything. We are trying to be positive but things aren’t coming together for us. Preparation has been similar to last year. Guys do what they need to do to prepare themselves but what matters is what we do on the field. This season is totally against to what we wanted to do. Difficult to find motivation when we are playing like this.

Bowlers were good again today; we let ourselves down with the bat. Haven’t witnessed something like this; so many batting collapses in a season, it hurts. We didn’t plan anything specifically for any bowler. Yeah, he (Sandeep) hit the right areas. if you see AB’s dismissal, he smokes those balls more often than not. We have played with intent in the past, we haven’t played with intent, but both haven’t worked. Credit to him – all three deliveries were good length balls,” Virat said.