Rocking it on the road the Royal Challengers’ way

Ahmedabad: One of the major reasons behind Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s sensational march to the final of this season’s IPL has been their exceptional away form.

In the nine games on the road, Royal Challengers have won eight of them. In fact, they’d triumphed in six successive games before their incredible streak was brought to a halt by the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Ekana Stadium about a week ago.

That game, though, was actually RCB’s home match, was shifted to Lucknow because of inclement weather in Bengaluru.

Royal Challengers instantly bounced back to beat Lucknow Super Giants away in the next game to become the first team in the history of the league to win all seven of their away matches in the league phase. The three-time runners-up then raised the bar even further by thrashing Punjab Kings in Qualifier 1 at the new PCA Stadium in Mullanpur to keep their away record intact.

RCB’s Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, said the initial goal was to perform at a high level on the road. “We’ve had a good amount of consistency this season. We were faced with some challenges up front going to those away venues, and that’s where we started. We said to the boys, we want to make a statement start, and I think winning those first few games away from home, places like Chennai and Mumbai, I think was real confidence for the boys,” he said on the show “RCB’s Journey to the Finale” on YouTube.

Bobat also felt the wins on the road gave RCB the confidence to exert their dominance at the Chinnaswamy Stadium — a venue they’ve surprisingly struggled at.

“I think that was incredibly helpful. We struggled a little bit at home to begin with, but when we managed to figure out how to win at home, that also gave the boys a lot of confidence, and then from that point onwards, we got on a bit of a roll.

“Getting to the season where lots of people have won one of the match awards is a good reflection of that, loads of people contributing with bat and ball was something that we really wanted as a focus.”

While it has indeed been a complete team effort from RCB so far, their new skipper Rajat Patidar has shone through with his captaincy, winning plaudits for his underrated style. A left-field choice by the think-tank, the shy Patidar has marshalled the resources brilliantly and made wonderful judgements when pressure has been high. He has aced it in the man management department too, giving space to superstars like Virat Kohli and Josh Hazlewood to have their say and providing a guiding light for youngsters like Suyash Sharma and Devdutt Padikkal.

“I think one of the most impressive things that Rajat has shown is that, and he does this as a personality and character anyway, anyone who knows him knows he’s incredibly calm. And it’s been good to see him use the people around him, whether that’s Jitesh as vice-captain, or Virat as a senior player, Krunal (Pandya) as another senior player, or even someone like Hazlewood.”

Team mentor Dinesh Karthik, who has worked brilliantly behind the scenes to engineer this fabulous run by RCB, hailed Patidar’s equanimity. “Rajat Patidar has been the biggest eye-opener for me in life. Because when people suddenly get a little bit of adulation, power, they tend to change. It’s normal. Their behavioural pattern, the way they kind of interact. Somewhere, something will show. But with Rajat Patidar, what a guy he is. For someone who is a captain of RCB, and today he calls the shots, he has been exactly the same that he was before becoming the captain.”