Royal Challengers Bangalore started their campaign strongly, but struggled to maintain the momentum of their campaign as they were caught off guard at times. After this defeat to Gujarat Titans, they are still in second place, but there has been a huge decline in their net run rate, which was going up till now.
Gujarat Titans attacked the weak point of Rajat Patidar’s team as they were forced to bat first, which has not been particularly their strength this season. After a brilliant bowling spell, the Titans were in rhythm and looking to complete the chase as quickly as possible.
The Shubman Gill-led GT team has finally avenged their defeat at Chinnaswamy with a brilliant performance on their home ground in Ahmedabad and added two more points to their points tally. Despite the fall of wickets, RCB could not defend the small score.
Despite Virat Kohli’s brilliant start, RCB had to struggle
Rajat Patidar’s team got off to a positive start with Virat Kohli scoring most of the runs in the powerplay. Kohli scored 28 runs in quick succession on Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj and gave them a great start.
After Kohli’s dismissal, captain Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal helped them in the powerplay, but then some excellent fielding efforts from Jason Holder helped the Titans claw their way back into the match.
RCB were in serious danger as wickets kept falling at regular intervals, with every GT bowler striking in the middle overs. Arshad Khan took three wickets while Holder and Rashid Khan took two wickets each, thus bowling out the Challengers at 155.
Shubman Gill’s fast start and Jos Buttler’s pace helped GT chase down the timid target
With an experienced bowling lineup for Royal Challengers Bangalore, chasing the score of 158 was also not an easy task for the Gujarat Titans batsmen. Rajat Patidar’s bowling unit featured Bhuvneshwar Kumar once again bowling his tight length and taking the wickets of the top three batsmen in the GT lineup, who have contributed almost 70% of the franchise’s runs this season of the IPL.
However, early aggression from Shubman Gill and then Jos Buttler before being dismissed had done most of the work, and the partnership between Rahul Tewatia and Jason Holder towards the end of the innings provided the finishing touches.
Rashid Khan played the winning shot and GT completed the chase with 25 balls remaining in the innings and RCB surprisingly dismissed only four of their bowlers in the innings.
I think the score was not good enough- Rajat Patidar
RCB captain Rajat Patidar said, “I think the score was not good enough, but I think the way we bowled and extended it to 15, 16 overs, I think it is a positive sign for us. Obviously, there is good cover of grass on the surface which helped the fast bowlers.”
Rajat Patidar praised Shubman Gill’s big role in GT’s win, “I think the way Shubman played, I think he played beautifully in the power play. And he put pressure on us, but the way we came back and pulled through to the 16th over, I think that’s a positive.”
“As we all know, I think he is an experienced bowler in the T20 format, and the way he bowled in the first half, I think he is incredible. But I think it is a long way, and we will take one game at a time. There are bound to be some bumps in the road,” Patidar said, marveling at Bhuvneshwar’s wicket-taking ability.
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