Fortunes turn for RCB this year

Out of the last 12 seasons of the Indian Premier League, RCB has made it to the finals three times, but has lost all three quite dramatically. In 2009, they lost to Deccan Chargers by six runs, in 2011 they lost to CSK in a one sided match and in 2016 they lost by eight runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

There are many factors to this. Primarily they could neither taste success while defending the target nor while chasing it. Like on their home ground Chinnaswamy stadium, where they used to set targets of above 200, but still the bowlers weren’t able to defend, despite having forces like AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and captain Virat Kohli himself.

However, the tables seem to have turned around this year for RCB. One of the key reason is the addition of South African medium pacer Chris Morris, star power play overs spinner Washington Sunder and trump card Yuzvendra Chahal who is able to bowl well and get crucial wickets courtesy of the long boundaries. And of course, Navdeep Saini, who’s extra pace has made the RCB bowling more lethal and Mohamad Siraj who has been swinging the new ball. This bowling squad is ensuring that they are bowling tight lines and getting the regular wickets for captain Kohli.

Kohli along with AB de Villiers have taken it upon themselves to make good enough runs as well as chasing down the targets, as we saw with de Villiers winning the game against RR from a losing position. Plus the addition of debutant Devdutt Padikkal who has already accumulated 321 runs from the 10 matches he has featured in so far at a staggering strike rate of 124.41 is working in the team’s favor.

A proud sportsman, Kohli is determined to win the IPL desperately which has eluded the RCB franchise for 12 years and has left no stone unturned. He is now playing his cards wisely and going for the kill and not giving any sniff to the opposition.

After 11 games RCB has won seven and lost four and are in a very good position to be in the top two so that they get an extra bite of the cherry in case they have a bad day in qualifier 1.

Kohli’s first target will obviously be to ensure that they win the next three games as both Delhi and Mumbai are eyeing the top two spots.

We all know that Kohli is a great batsman, will he be able to get past Mumbai Indians and Rohit Sharma to win the coveted title? Your guess is as good as mine.

• IPL 2024