New Delhi: It has been a rather abysmal run for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the 10th season of Indian Premier League (IPL). The runners-up of the 2016 edition, stumbled down to hit rock-bottom on the points table and turned out to be the first team to be chipped off the race to play-offs.
Hammered and battered and teased and trolled, that’s what RCB camp endured. RCB’s explosive display in the gentlemen’s game, turned to be a tale without a hint of any coherent narrative. The last years’ finalists have failed to replicate their form in 2017. Not only so, even the much-feared ‘Big Three’ became a laughing stock.
Many cricketing legends have, in fact, tried to dissect the cause behind this overturn of events for the Bengaluru-based franchise. One of them was Aussie legend Ricky Ponting. In his part of the explanation, the former Australian captain put forth the ‘absence of KL Rahul’ as the prime reason behind RCB’s downfall.
In an interview to cricket.com.au, Ponting explained, “KL Rahul is a massive loss for them. He had a terrific back-end to last season. He did some amazing things last year so him not being at the top has been a big loss.”
“Their big name players just aren’t standing up like they did last year, said the 42-year-old, while speaking about the rest of the players. They got on an amazing roll at the back end of last year’s tournament when Kohli was playing out of his skin, de Villiers was playing well, Gayle was chipping in and Watson was doing a good job with bat and ball.”
He also added, “But so far Kohli has done next to nothing, there’s been flashes in the pan from Gayle and AB de Villiers, but the consistency just hasn’t been there.
Last season’s orange cap winner has scored just 250 runs in nine maches played so far this season, averaging 27.77, with a best performance of 64 runs.
For the record, Kohli has indeed admitted to their collective failure.
“We’ve suffered at home, we’ve suffered away. It’s been a season to forget. Everything we’re trying to do, it’s just not happening. If the batting gets runs, the bowlers aren’t able to defend it and if the bowlers are getting the opposition out, the batting is collapsing,” said skipper Virat Kohli, in an interview to IPLT20.com.
“It’s really strange. I’ve never seen something like this in T20 cricket … it’s really energy-sapping and all you can do is carry on and keep trying our hardest. And to RCB’s fans, Kohli added: “I promise things can’t get worse than this and next year we hope to come back stronger.”
RCB will play their last match of the season, against Delhi Daredevils on May 14. They have five points from 13 matches, with two wins and a rain-washed out game.
Source: Zee News