The Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) issues with their bowling continue to persist in the 2024 edition of the IPL as well. Kolkata Knight Riders chased down a target of 183 runs in just 16.5 overs as they made the RCB attack look like club cricket-level at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday, March 22. Virat Kohli's 83* helped RCB get to a score in excess of 182, which looked to be par with the slower balls gripping from the surface. However, the wicket got better as the match progressed and an 85-run powerplay from KKR just sealed the game.
Apart from Vijaykumar Vyshak, who came in as impact player, no other RCB player used the slower balls to a good effect as the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal and Alzarri Joseph all kept dishing out pace and Sunil Narine and Phil Salt feasted on it, smashing them all around the ground. Mayank Dagar dismissed Narine in the first over after the powerplay to bring some relief for RCB and the home crowd but Venkatesh Iyer coming in at No. 3, too maintained the tempo and smashed a quickfire half-century to seal the deal for KKR in a first away win of the season.
RCB's bowling was at the forefront of the result of the Friday encounter while many believed that the home side was at least 20-30 runs short. Former England captain Michael Vaughan said that RCB can't win the IPL with this attack and ex-India all-rounder Irfan Pathan also echoed the sentiment saying that the Men in Red need to sort out their bowling issues.
“Impossible for @RCBTweets to win the IPL with this bowling attack," Vaughan wrote on Twitter (now X). "RCB really need to sort their bowling," Said Irfan. Meanwhile, Simon Doull, the former Kiwi pacer admitted that KKR came out all guns blazing but maintained that RCB bowlers were poor.
"They didn't bowl well. Let's not sugarcoat it. They were poor, Siraj wasn't great. But they were attacked and as soon as they were attacked, they didn't know where to go. They went very short, they got hit square a lot. Top edges a few of them but as soon as you go short, you are asking to be hit square of the wicket," said Doull on Cricbuzz in the post-match analysis.
RCB will play a third home game in a row on Tuesday, April 2 against the Lucknow Super Giants and will be desperate to change their home record as they have been unable to get results in their favour.
