Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered a cracking defeat against Kings XI Punjab by a huge margin of 97-runs on Friday. The complete squad of Royal Challengers Bangalore, including some of the world-class batsmen like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, failed to even chase the target runs and were bundled out for 109 in 17 overs.
During the match, KXIP’s skipper KL Rahul took the match by storm as he slammed an unbeaten 132 runs in 69 balls and smashed the bowlers of RCB to all the corners of the ground.
One of the bizarre moments of Virat Kohli’s captaincy came when Virat gave the ball to Shivam Dube in the final over of KXIP’s innings. KL Rahul was already batting at 100+ at that time and giving the ball to Shivam Dube only worsened things for RCB as KL smashed 2 fours and 2 sixes in that over and gave 23 runs away.
Talking about the same on ESPNCricinfo’s analysis show T20 Time Out, former India cricketer and two-time IPL-winning skipper Gautam Gambhir said that giving the ball to Shivam Dub in the final over was Virat’s miscalculation as a skipper. He said:
“I know Shivam Dube bowled really well in his first two overs. Yes, you would be tempted to give him a third over, but not the last over. When KL Rahul is already set and batting on 100+, you are walking on the edge, because that can happen,”
Gautam
Gambhir also suggested that he would have preferred Navdeep Saini or Dale Steyn instead of Shivam Dube. He said:
“I would have Navdeep Saini or Dale Steyn bowling the last over, even though Steyn is not the best death over. But I would have given the last over to the best bowler of the team”
He added:
“You finished off Navdeep Saini in the 17th over. Probably, you could have used Umesh Yadav, who did not have the best of the days. But Shivam Dube bowling the last over was a bad calculation,”
He also talked about the two dropped catches of KL Rahul and said how small mistakes can make a huge difference in T20 cricket. He said:
“Had KL Rahul got out for 86-89, Kings XI would have scored 185, and chasing that would have been completely different gameplan for RCB. That is how it happened, that is what T20 cricket. Small mistakes can make a huge difference as well. It was a huge impact, especially from those results point of view,”
