The Report Card; RCB vs RR Player Ratings

The Report Card; RCB vs RR Player Ratings: The Eliminator of the IPL 2015 threw a few surprises with some extremely good performances from some of the underused or underappreciated players. Royal Challengers Bangalore started the game slowly and after Gayle and Kohli’s wickets, it looked like they were heading for a low first innings score. But ABD and Mandeep Singh had different ideas. RR bowled well for the first 10 overs but RCB turned it around to post 180 on the board. Regular wickets for RR didn’t give them any momentum and finally seemed like a meek surrender to the star studded RCB team.

Royal Challengers Bangalore –

Chris Gayle – 3:

The blitzkrieg that everyone expected never actually happened. Played a decent innings but such is his explosive reputation and record that this was a below par performance from the West Indian. He scored 27 off 26 and gave a slow start to the RCB innings.

Virat Kohli – 1:

It was a disappointing display from the RCB skipper. Virat Kohli ate up 18 balls for just 12 runs. A soft dismissal for the man in form did his undoing. It was admittedly a good delivery from Dhawal Kulkarni. But Kohli is expected to anchor the innings which he failed to do this time.

AB de Villiers – 9:

He was in form and he showed his class with a perfectly timed innings. It would have been a perfect performance by AB de Villeirs if he had stayed till the end. Kept his cool under pressure and soaked it in at the start and once he settled, AB sprayed the ground with some amazing shots and provided a much needed push to the RCB batting and ultimately helped the team to reach 180.

Mandeep Singh – 8:

This was a mature innings from the underappreciated member of the team. 54 off 34 in a pressure game from a player who hasn’t batted a lot in the tournament was just splendid. Mandeep delivered a wonderful performance when it mattered the most.

Dinesh Karthik – 2:

Didn’t get much of a chance to bat but hit a six in the final over and picked up a couple of catches while keeping. Dropped a catch of Rahane but admittedly was a tough one, but to win big games you have to grab those half chances.

Sarfaraz Khan – 0:

Again, didn’t get many balls to really affect the game. The 17 year old has already shown his talent and deserves more opportunities to contribute to the team.

David Wiese – 5:

Picked up the important wicket of Steve Smith at a crucial time and was decent with the ball. David Wiese finished with figures of 4-0-32-2.

Mitchell Starc – 5:

Went away for a few runs in the first over but came back quite strongly. Starc picked up a wicket, was miserly after that first over and finished with an economy rate of 5.50.

Harshal Patel – 6:

Harshal Pate was excellent with the ball and as a result picked up 2 wickets. He also kept things tight and finished with impressive figures of 3-0-15-2.

Yuzvendra Chahal – 7:

It was another superb performance from this Emerging Player of the year contender. He did his chances of winning the prize no harm. Chahal chipped in with 2 wickets including that of the man in form Ajinkya Rahane. He was also extremely economical with an economy rate of 5.

Sreenath Aravind – 8:

Arvind was brilliant with the ball for the RCB. Picked up the all important wicket of Watson at the start and then dismissed Faulkner too. He gave away just 20 runs in the 4 overs that he bowled.

Rajasthan Royals –

Ajinkya Rahane -6:

Rahane was the only batsman who kept ticking the scorecard on a forgettable day for the Royals. Stayed at the crease for a long time and tried to get the RR batting going, but didn’t get much support at the other end and finally ended up throwing away his wicket by lofting the ball up in the air, in the bid to cope up with the required Run Rate.

Shane Watson – 2:

Bowled 4 overs and was decent with the ball but didn’t pick up any wickets. Shane Watson looked dangerous with the bat till he nicked a ball off Aravind. He scored 10 off 5 and failed to lift the RR batting when they needed it the most.

Sanju Samson – 0:

This was yet another disappointing performance from the RR wicket keeper. Sanju Samson was promoted up the order but failed to provide and impetus in the huge run chase.

Steve Smith – 1:

Skipper Steve Smith failed at the time when his team needed him to score big. His form has gone from bad to worse towards the business end of the tournament. Made some interesting decisions as the skipper and changed his bowlers well but failed to contain ABD and Mandeep.

Karun Nair – 0:

Karun Nair didn’t affect the game at all. He was another RR batsman who failed in a pressure game.

Deepak Hooda – 0:

This was a poor performance from the youngster. But can’t really blame him as by the time Hooda arrived at the crease RR had little to no chance of winning the game.

James Faulkner – 0:

It proved to be another miserable day for Faulkner with the ball. He gave away 42 runs in his 4 overs without picking up any wickets. The game concluded as a poor one for the Australian.

Stuart Binny -1:

Bowled a brilliant over and gave away just 1 run. But Stuart Binny who has the reputation of being an all-rounder and that is the position that he occupies in the RR and the Indian team, but he certainly was disappointing with the bat.

Christopher Morris – 1:

His performance was disappointing for a player in form (7 wickets in his last 2 games). Morris gave away too many runs and picked up a wicket in the final over when batsmen were slogging it all around the ground. Chris Morris was expected to pick more wickets and bowl accurately, being the strike bowler for the RR.

Dhawal Kulkarni – 6:

He was the most impressive bowler for the Royals and picked up the crucial wickets of Gayle and Kohli. Kulkarni provided some much needed momentum to RR with the ball. His economy rate was pretty descent as well (7) in consideration to how others faired.

Ankit Sharma – 0:

28 runs off 3 overs without a wicket for the spinner wasn’t a good enough performance, especially in a game of such magnitude. Ankit Sharma didn’t make himself eligible for a single rating point, so it’s a zero for a 0 impact performance.