Royal Challengers Bangalore’s dominance en route their victory against Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League opener last week partly explains why their fanbase is what it is: loyal to a fault.
RCB’s meekness en route their loss against Kolkata Knight Riders a few days ago wholly explains why that same fanbase becomes what it does under duress: kings and queens of social media trolling.
In a sense, RCB fans are none too different from the team’s fluctuating stances and fortunes.
With that in mind, it will be interesting to see which RCB turns up when confronted by the Lucknow Super Giants in Bengaluru on Monday night at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
KL Rahul, who knows a thing or two about Bengaluru and its famed venue having been raised here, will hope to give his side the required data to outwit the hosts.
He does have the human resources to exploit conditions here, but his side, while successful so far with two solid wins from three competitive games, does not look like a particularly daunting opponent. And yet, RCB are not favourites in this contest.
Yes, skipper Faf du Plessis has a decent batting line-up to hinge on with his friend and former captain - aka Virat Kohli - forging the core, but in losing four players to injury, he has more on his plate than he would have liked.
Josh Hazlewood is likely to be out for another week as he is still recovering from his Achilles Heel injury, while Rajat Patidar, Reece Copley and Will Jacks are mostly out for good.
Replacements Vyshak Vijaykumar, Wayne Parnell, Michael Bracewell are promising names, but the strength of the squad seems to have waned.
RCB’s bowling doesn’t wear a worn look just yet, what with Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel and David Willey carrying the load, but the need to find hopefully-proficient replacements after only two games is worrying. RCB also have a problem playing spinners, beginning at the top with Kohli’s inability to find his mojo against the tweakers.
When Kohli gets going, he does look every bit the player he is made out to be, but when a spinner - especially those off-spinners - manages to land it outside off stump and earns some turn inwards, Kohli looks properly inept.
Coincidentally, a similar flaw was seen among his fellowmen against the mystery trio of Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Marine and Suyash Sharma in the last game.
The Super Giants don’t have a mystery spinner to speak of but they do have a batch of quality spinners in Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi and Amit Mishra.
As for their batting, it’s a nice enough array with Rahul still hoping to find form, Quinton de Kock striking it clean, Kyle Mayers bent on breaking balls with his long handle, and Nicholas Pooran hoping to make his experience count.
Suspending form, the teams look like an even match, but how the Super Giants fare when the stadium ebbs and flows with emotion is where the game will be won or lost.
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