Ajinkya Rahane, who is the leading run-getter in the IPL, not scoring big runs at the top of the order made a negative impact on the end result of the Rajasthan Royals. They not only lost the match against the out-of-form Royal Challengers Bangalore by nine wickets, but also showed chinks in their armour.
Rahane did get a decent start to his innings but couldn’t transform it into something fruitful for his team. The Australian recruits in Royals’ team like captain Shane Watson, Steve Smith and James Faulkner did get starts to their innings, but none of them could make it count.
For the first time in the tournament, the Royals were clueless. It seems that their loss in the last match against the Kings XI Punjab, that too in the Super Over, must have dented the confidence level slightly.
Otherwise, the team which was able to beat a champions side like the Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets previously, lost to a low-ranked team by a huge margin. Ultimately, the man of the tournament in the 2015 World Cup, Mitchell Starc, made a huge difference between both the sides.
Coming back after an injury lay-off, the Australian left-arm fast bowler took three wickets to his credit and conceded only 22 runs from his four overs. He was taken for 16 runs off his first two overs.
However, he came back strongly in his second spell to create an impact. Before this match, the RCB bowlers were leaking runs at nearly 10 runs per over and now with Starc in the bowling line-up, the Virat Kohli led team can think of more inspiring performances.
With the bat, Kohli made the right noises. He remained unbeaten along with explosive middle-order batsman AB de’ Villiers. This is the performance, which will keep RCB in good stead before they take on the Delhi Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday evening. And the biggest test for Kohli will be to score runs and challenge the Daredevils at a venue, which is his first home.
