Most of the talking has centred around Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar when it comes to Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s performances in this IPL. But their skipper Rajat Patidar has been just as important for the defending champions in the course of their journey so far.
He proved so again with his blitzkrieg (93 not out off 33 balls) that laid the foundation for RCB’s clinical 92-run victory over Gujarat Titans in the Qualifier 1 in Dharamsala on Tuesday. They are now just a step away from successfully defending their crown.
Despite a solid start at the HPCA Stadium, RCB lost both Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal to slip to 99/3 in the 10th over from 76/1 in the Powerplay. However, Patidar, who too has had his share of contributions with the bat, smashed nine maximums and
five boundaries to power RCB to 254/5 after they were put into bat.
The Titans then lost the plot in the first five overs of their chase itself. They needed at least one of their top three — Sai Sudharsan, captain Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler — to score big for scaling the daunting target. But all three batters failed to deliver.
Sudharsan produced a fine cut off Jacob Duffy that raced to the boundary for a four, only to see the bat come off his hands, bounce off the surface and disturb the woodwork. Following Sudharsan’s freak dismissal in the third over, Gill perished in the next when Bhuvneshwar shaped one in to clean the Titans’ captain up.
To make matters worse, Josh Hazlewood knocked Buttler over as the Titans, wobbling at 51/3 in five overs, couldn’t recover from thereon. Thanks to Impact Player Rahul Tewatia (68 off 43 balls), they somehow avoided a defeat in excess of 100 runs. Almost all the RCB bowlers were among wickets, bowling the Titans out for 162 in 19.3 overs to reach Sunday’s final in style.
The Titans, though, will have another chance for a crack at the final berth if they win Qualifier II in Mullanpur on Friday. But this embarrassing loss to RCB reflected their dependence on their top three batters, alongside exposing the middle order’s frailties.
The Titans had earlier let Patidar off twice. First, on 14 by Kulwant Khejroliya, who came running in from deep third man and thereafter on 20 by Kagiso Rabada — usually a safe catcher — at deep square leg. Both catches were dropped in the 14th over off Prasidh Krishna’s bowling, and they did prove to be extremely costly.
However, those reprieves cannot take away the stroke-making prowess of the RCB captain as he brought up his fifth half-century in this edition, taking his tally of runs to 486 to be his team’s second-highest run-getter after Kohli. What stands out in
this innings from Patidar is how quickly he was able to change gears.
Off his first 13 balls, Patidar had scored 21. Off his next 20, he amassed 72, which underlines how devastating he could be at the death. It won’t be surprising if Patidar is discussed when the selectors get down to finalise the India squad for the upcoming T20Is against Ireland and Zimbabwe.
He didn’t spare a single Titans bowler. A tad watchful against the wily Jason Holder, Patidar cashed in even when the in-form Rabada gave him a wee bit of width or room on pitch that had a bit of bounce but also assisted strokeplay. In a nutshell, the tempo at which Patidar batted, the Titans bowlers just couldn’t afford to err in length.
The bowling group’s work, thereafter, was like an extension of Patidar’s innings.