Royal Challengers Bangalore were bowled out for 115 while chasing 145 against Rajasthan Royals on April 26. Ex-West Indies international turned commentator Ian Bishop believes failing to chase 145 should worry RCB a lot more than their previous loss, where they were shot out for 68.
Bishop stated RCB’s disastrous batting performance against Sunrisers Hyderabad could be put down as one bad game, but it was not the case with their failure against the Royals.
The RCB bowlers had done a pretty good job to restrict an in-form opposition batting unit to only 144/8. But chasing a reasonably low total of 145, they were dismantled for just 115, losing the game by 29 runs. Analysing RCB’s effort with the bat, Bishop says this loss is more concerning as the top order and middle order continues to misfire.
“This worries me a lot more because I am still not seeing Virat Kohli getting the runs that he needs to get for this team to prosper. That middle-order, if Glenn Maxwell doesn’t fire, and you can go at him with hard pace if you have it in your armory, is a real concern. The guys were saying RCB have one bad game a year. That last game was it. But if you can’t chase 145, you have got issues,”
he told ESPNcricinfo.
RCB dropped Anuj Rawat after below-par returns in the first half of the season and pushed Virat Kohli to open the innings, but it didn’t bring any success as the former captain was dismissed for just 9. Moreover, he looked all over the place in his short stay. Bishop said while he is happy with Virat moving up the order, he needs to start getting runs asap for RCB’s success.
With their recent loss, RCB have now faced four losses in nine games in IPL 2022. They currently sit fifth in the standings with 10 points and net run-rate of -0.572.
