BENGALURU: Tuesday’s washout against Sunrisers Hyderabad has only made things harder for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Their opponents on Thursday, Gujarat Lions, are currently placed last on the IPL points table, with RCB sixth.
This is as dramatic and nervous as it could get. Both teams are struggling and there is no option but to begin winning. It is more urgent for the hosts to start earning points.
The M Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch has slowed down considerably and there are no mountains of runs like last year. As a result, bowlers are the ones who will be in the spotlight again.
Whoever Bangalore picks to do bowling duties will have do a better job if they are to have any hope of winning. Bowlers have in fact been doing better than batsmen, and the likes of Tymal Mills, S Aravind, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shane Watson need to pull something out of the bag to keep hopes of making the semifinals alive.
However, RCB is not looking back at what happened. Instead, they are focused on the job on hand. “We were expecting a five-over game, but that didn’t happen,” said Aravind.
“We can turn things around because we have good players. We’ll give our best over the remaining six games,” he added.
“IPL is a pressure environment, and we know we’ve to win all remaining games. But we also need to stay positive. Talking about what went wrong doesn’t work. As a unit, we didn’t do well and there were close games. It was a disappointing game (the SRH washout) and we didn’t talk about it. We want to concentrate on the next game.”
Gujarat have signed up all-rounders Irfan Pathan and Ankit Soni to replace Dwayne Bravo and Shivil Kaushik. And the team is keen on making an impact. Though the changed nature of the pitch here has been a talking point, Pathan looks at it philosophically.
“That’s the beauty of cricket. A lot depends on the pitch. It’s not that much of a factor in any other sport. In cricket, the pitch keeps changing,” he said, adding: “Hopefully, I’ll be able to bring in new energy and be able to make a difference. But it’s too early to say anything about how it will go in the next seven matches.”
For RCB, last year’s runners-up, time is running out. They will have to pull off something special on Thursday. That is an absolute necessity now.
vivekphadnis@newindianexpress.com