Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)’s decision to promote Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube ahead of AB de Villiers in the batting order backfired as RCB suffered its third defeat of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 against the bottom-placed Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) on Thursday (October 15) in Sharjah.
The youngsters were sent ahead of the in-form batting superstar De Villiers, as Sundar joined captain Virat Kohli in the 7th over when RCB were batting on 62/2. The spinner (13 off 14 balls) was dismissed by Murugan Ashwin and then the franchise surprised all by promoting Dube at No.5 in order to maintain the left-right combination intact and he could score only 23 off 19 balls against the KXIP.
Well, De Villiers finally came to bat No. 6 when the innings already reached the 16th over, and he could face only 5 balls before being dismissed by Mohammad Shami for 2. Later, Chris Morries stunned all by playing a quickfire knock of 25* off just 8 balls to take RCB to 171/6 against KXIP.
However, KXIP managed to beat RCB by 8 wickets thanks to half-centuries from captain KL Rahul and comeback man Chris Gayle, with Nicholas Pooran smashing the final ball of the game for a six to seal the win for his team.
Following the defeat, RCB head coach Simon Katich has defended the decision to play De Villiers at No. 6, saying the move was to give a good opportunity to Dube and Sundar, but they failed to take it while lamenting to not have had great partnerships against KXIP in Sharjah.
Katich said: “It will always be hard, but it was a good opportunity for them to show they could do too in that phase. Unfortunately, no one kicked on as it would have helped in posting a bigger total.”
He further explained, “But certainly, they tried hard and I think Kings XI bowled well. We didn’t get the big partnership that we have been getting like 75-plus. Tonight, we had a lot 30-40 run partnership, we just didn’t get the big one.”
Noteworthy, RCB will next play Rajasthan Royals in their next IPL 13 encounter on Saturday (October 17) in Dubai.
