KKR do the double over RCB

The impact of a catch is seldom highlighted in the shortest format for it rarely contributes to an exciting narrative, but when the grab is as cogent as the one which Venkatesh Iyer pouched on Wednesday, a more compelling storyline needn’t be sought.

Stationed at deep midwicket, Venkatesh sprinted to his left with his eyes trained on a scud from Virat Kohli off Andre Russell. This moment came with Royal Challengers Bangalore needing 86 from 48 balls in response to Kolkata Knight Riders’ 200 for 5, and Kohli was on 54 from 36 balls.

Given how well Kohli was striking the ball, the full house at the M Chinnaswamy stadium expected the skipper to finish things off despite RCB’s uninspiring middle-order. Alas.

Venkatesh dove to his left with inches separating his floating frame and the ropes to just about get his fingers under the ball. He knew what he had done as he sat there with his arms stretched out. His team knew the game was as good as done as they raced to embrace him.

Perhaps Mike Hesson will find a novel way to explain the embarrassing trundle from 115 for 4 in 12 overs to 179 for 8 in 20 overs. Perhaps he will defend the two drop catches even though they allowed Nitish Rana to make a momentum-altering 48 from 21 balls. Perhaps the New Zealander will insist that the wicket was a tough one to bat on.

While he might be at peace with it, the truth is, RCB showed up with all of their flaws again in their 22-run defeat, and Kolkata - despite coming into this game on the back of a four-game losing streak - looked a better unit.

In that vein, it’s easy to see that RCB’s bowling unit is what is keeping them in these games.

Mohammed Siraj, Wanindu Hasaranga and Vyshak Vijaykumar bowled with exceptional touch and showed good knowledge of variations to be employed at this venue. Even David Willey and Harshal Patel weren’t so far off the mark.

Sure, they conceded a combined 200 runs with Jason Roy topping the charts with 56, but Siraj dropping Rana on 5 and Harshal dropping the same batter on 19, didn’t help. Neither did the 69 runs from the last five overs.

All this considered, RCB still needed to chase down a par score. They couldn’t.

Over 75 per cent of all runs scored by RCB this season have come from Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell. With 14 overs left, Du Plessis was packed off by ‘Impact Player’ Suyash Sharma (2/30) for 17 and Maxwell was sent off by Varun Chakravarthy (3/27) for 5.

Doubt grew despite Kohl’s presence, only to become an inevitability after that catch from Venkatesh. The silence was as deafening and obvious as RCB’s mediocre bunch of well-marketed men.