Royal Challengers Bengaluru breezed to a 146-run target against Lucknow Super Giants on a slowish Chinnaswamy pitch, winning with 29 balls left and looking, well, remarkably relaxed while doing it. The chase felt like a continuation of something we have seen all season: an insistence on playing at top speed, no matter the surface or situation, with captain Rajat Patidar happily leading the charge.
Patidar’s numbers tell most of the story. Five innings, 222 runs, an average touching 55 and a strike-rate north of 210. Twenty-one sixes already, and he has barely broken sweat. On Wednesday he cracked 27 from 12 balls – three sixes, one four – even after Phil Salt and Devdutt Padikkal had fallen cheaply at run-a-ball pace. The dismissal, a straight-hit attempt off Prince Yadav, came because he kept the foot down rather than because he lost control.
Ambati Rayudu, speaking on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show, reckons that attitude is spreading.
“They are going after every ball. The captain is doing that so the team is following that tempo and that template. Whenever you see Patidar walk in, he comes with a lot of intent,” Rayudu said. “It is rubbing off on his non-striker as well as the batters who are following. It is quite refreshing to see RCB play that way.”
Rayudu added a nod to the conditions: “Playing on a slow wicket, they adapted way better than the way Lucknow’s batters did. It was a slow wicket, they had to adjust their shots and their bat swing but they played some fantastic shots. Generally, we have seen a lot of sixes against loose balls, but this batting line-up has been hitting sixes against really good deliveries. That’s a great sign.”
The supporting cast helped finish the job. Jitesh Sharma, short of runs all season, belted 23 off nine. Tim David and Romario Shepherd chipped in with 14 apiece from eight balls each. None appeared worried about averages or red-ink not-outs; they just kept swinging.
Former Australia captain Aaron Finch, also on the programme, felt that summed RCB up.
“That’s just a batting unit with a lot of confidence,” Finch said. “You can see the gap between the teams on the top of the table and the bottom. That was again evident today. They go with a similar structure on how they go about their run-chases. They go hard even when the game [is in their grasp].”
He went further: “It would’ve been easy in that situation for one of their batters to get 25 not out, but no, that’s not how they play cricket in Bengaluru now. They continue to stick to their guns, they play to their strengths. If the match up is theirs, they go for it. They put to bed games quite comfortably.”
A quick glance forward: the method is working, but can it hold on slower pitches in the play-offs? Chinnaswamy tends to quicken up as summer pushes on, yet neutral venues may not be as friendly. Still, if the captain is swinging from the first ball, it is hard to see the rest stepping back.
For now, RCB appear content – even delighted – to let Patidar’s intent define them.
