Virat Kohli's RCB desperate for victory against Delhi Capitals

RCB skipper Virat Kohli during the IPL match v KKR on Friday. Pic/PTI

The batsmen score a total of 70 one day and yet the bowlers stretch the game to the final overs. On another day the bowlers concede in excess of 230 but the batsmen collapse in a heap. Then came the day when the batsmen scored 205 and the bowlers restricted the opposition to a stage where 53 was required from 18 balls. Finally, the batting and bowling had fired in unison, or so we thought. What followed was a flurry of sixes, seven in all, from the big, broad blade of Andre Russell and soon enough the contest between RCB and KKR was dead, and with five balls to spare.

Horror for RCB bowlers
It was fantastic hitting no doubt but there was substantial help from the bowlers, two of whom combined to bowl one over, after Mohd Siraj's second beamer resulted in him being taken off. The experience of a Marcus Stoinis first and Tim Southee next wasn't anywhere on display though. There was no dew, so the excuse that the ball was slipping out of the hand couldn't be put out. Not a single yorker was delivered, it was mostly length balls, many wide of the stumps, all to a man who feeds on length. What use is all the time spent in the nets, the line markings and the cones which were laid out every evening before a game to get the bowlers to bowl a particular line and length?

Deserve bottom place: Kohli
No wonder skipper Virat Kohli, who himself finally got going with the bat, was livid. Speaking at the post match presentation he said: "If we bowl like that and don't show composure in pressure moments, we deserve to be where we are in the table." RCB are the very bottom, with five losses from as many games. "It was just one-dimensional in the end and nothing came off," he added.

All this will be good news for the Delhi Capitals, who for some seasons now, have been where RCB are. This time around the renamed outfit has been better but only marginally so, with two wins and three losses from their five games. With the spirits in the RCB camp as low as it can get, this afternoon's game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, which always provides a better surface than the Kotla in Delhi does, comes just at the right time for DC to recoup.

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