IPL 2024: Beleaguered Royal Challengers Bengaluru seek miraculous turnaround

At the halfway mark, RCB need a miraculous turnaround, starting with Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday, if they wish to stay in the hunt for the playoffs.

Bengaluru: "Yes, we do have some issues with our batting. We got Virat (Kohli) in superb form but other guys are struggling for form and confidence… Just not firing at the moment. If we've got to turn this around, we need them firing," bemoaned Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s head coach Andy Flower after the team’s loss against Rajasthan Royals earlier this month. 

“From a bowling perspective, we have lacked penetration. We have to get them two or three down in the Powerplay. Always feels like we are on the back foot after the first four overs. We don't have as many weapons in our bowling,” rued RCB skipper Faf du Plessis after the defeat against Mumbai Indians in their previous match.

The coach and captain couldn’t have been more candid in detailing Royal Challengers’ woes this season that has seen them notch up just one win from six games to lie at the bottom of the stack.

Now, at the halfway mark, they need a miraculous turnaround, starting with Sunrisers Hyderabad here at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday, if they wish to stay in the hunt for the playoffs.

Firstly, RCB's bowlers need to get their act together, especially considering how fearful the batting line-up of Sunrisers is. Their second highest scorer, the talented Abhishek Sharma (177 runs), has been blasting at a strike-rate of 208.23, leading run-getter, the marauding Heinrich Klaasen (186 runs), has been firing at 193.75, while the likes of Travis Head (172.72) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (173.33) too have come out all guns blazing.

Their template is to go bang-bang from ball one without worrying about the consequences and the batters have executed it brilliantly so far, even raking up the highest total in IPL, posting 277/3 against five-time champions Mumbai Indians.  

Monday may be no different as SRH, with 6 points from 5 games, will be aiming to rub as much salt as possible into the wounds of RCB's bowlers who look in disarray.

A bigger worry for Du Plessis is literally every bowler, apart from Vyshak Vijaykumar, has got clobbered for runs and has no one to fall upon.

Strike bowler Mohammed Siraj has gone for 10.40 runs an over, his partner Yash Dayal has conceded 8.31 an over, while imports like Reece Topley (9.09) and Cameron Green (9.40) too haven’t made any impact. How the bowlers bounce back at a compact venue where even mis-hits soar into the stands remains to been seen.

Not just the bowlers, even the batters need to up their ante, especially the star acts. Glen Maxwell, who came into the IPL in great form, has mustered a mere 32 runs which has really hurt RCB.

Green, hailed as the next big thing in Australian cricket, too has been ordinary while Du Plessis has struggled to get going. The trio really need to start firing considering the lack of options in the dug-out for RCB. 

Monday’s game is the last home fixture this month for RCB, who hit the road and return home only on May 4. They’ll be hoping for a turnaround but will find it tough against the hard-hitting SRH batters.