Royal Challengers Bangalore have come out with flying colours in their second match of phase 2 of IPL 2021 against arch rivals Chennai Super Kings after suffering a disastrous defeat in the first match against Kolkata Knight Riders. Batting first at the high scoring pitch of Sharjah Cricket Stadium, they started off pretty well thanks to brilliant knocks by skipper Virat Kohli and young opener Devdutt Padikkal both of whom scored a Fifty each. Although CSK were able to restrict the Challengers to much less runs in the last 10 overs, they raised up a total of 156 runs, which is decent enough.
However, one thing that RCB need to be worried about is their middle order. The lack of form of their star performer AB de Villiers is costing them a big deal of runs in the middle order and after the departure of Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli, the batting lineup looks pretty pale. Fortunately for RCB, their bowling lineup is now good enough to cover up for their poor batting lineup.
Coming on to chase, Chennai Super Kings got a similarly good start to RCB courtesy of Faf Du Plessis and the star of last match Ruturaj Gaikwad. Both of them combinedly gave CSK a blazing start to their innings which was just what they needed.
However, RCB spinner Yuzvendra Chahal used his experience at small stadiums in his favour to depart set batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad and that hugely affected CSK’s momentum. It had an impact on his partner Faf Du Plessis as well as he followed Ruturaj to the dugout shortly after, being dismissed by Glenn Maxwell.
Although the loss of two set batsmen in such a quick succession will definitely affect CSK’s hopes of easily winning the match, their run rate is too high for the match to slip out of their hands so soon. Given the incredible depth in batting lineup that Chennai Super Kings have, it must still be an easy win for MS Dhoni and his men.
