The ‘Battle of Royals’ saw a see-saw match that ended in the favour of RCB. RR were handed their first defeat of this year’s IPL courtesy of a brilliant partnership between Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed, with the pair adding 67 runs off just 33 balls. Let’s look at some key moments from match 13 of the 2022 IPL.
The Hasaranga-Samson match-up
Wanindu Hasaranga had conceded 12 runs from his opening over. Harshal Patel got Devudutt Padikkal’s wicket in the next over and in came Sanju Samson. However, Samson wasn’t on strike, so Akash Deep replaced Hasaranga. In the very next over, Samson was the on-strike batter, and Hasanranga was rightly brought back into the attack.
Before this game, Samson had faced 11 balls from Hasaranga. Hasaranga dismissed Samon three times in those 11 balls, conceding just two runs. RCB captain, Faf du Plessis, seemed to be well aware of this match-up, and Hasaranga showed why he had Samson’s number.
Samson hit a six off the second ball he faced from Hasaranga, which was a full-pitched ball in the slot. Hasaranga shortened his length the next ball and bowled a googly, which Samson failed to read but survived a DRS call for LBW. However, he couldn’t survive anymore, as he chipped the very next ball back to the bowler, which was a flat ball that stopped a bit. Hasaranga has now dismissed Samson four times in just 15 balls.
Anuj Rawat’s struggles as an opener
In five T20 innings in 2021, Anuj Rawat had scored 100 runs at a strike rate of 131.6, averaging 50. Based on these performances, RCB tasked Rawat with opening the innings alongside du Plessis. Du Plessis is a batter who doesn’t tee off early. He usually takes time to settle in before he goes after the bowling.
To complement du Plessis’ style, RCB would have hoped for a brisk start from Rawat. However, Rawat has been found wanting in the IPL so far. In three innings, the opener has managed to score just 47 runs in as many balls. With Glenn Maxwell available from the next match, Rawat might find himself out of the team.
Samson’s poor captaincy
When Karthik walked out to bat, RCB needed 83 runs off 45 balls. Chahal had bowled his three overs for just 11 runs, picking up two wickets. Considering Karthik’s record against the leg-spinners, it seemed like an obvious choice that Chahal would come back to finish his quota of overs, but that wasn’t to be.
Samson had a chance to kill the game by bringing back Chahal, but he went for his pacers. By the time Chahal came back, the game was firmly in RCB’s grasp, as they needed 32 runs off 24 balls, with Karthik set on 33 off just 15 balls.
Prasidh Krishna was asked to bowl the penultimate over for RR, with RCB needing 15 runs. Although the game was RCB’s to lose from that point, Samson’s field placement was baffling. Karthik is extremely good at shuffling across the crease and hitting the ball on the leg side. Till that point in the match, Karthik had already scored 29 of his 40 runs on the leg side. Despite that, there was no fielder in the deep on the on-side. With that field, the bowler’s line became predictable, and that made it easier for Karthik to simply shuffle across and slog the ball to the midwicket region for a four.