Virat Kohli's continued woeful form was a sign of things to come as Royal Challengers Bangalore were literally walloped by Sunrisers Hyderabad who cantered to an easy nine-wicket victory in Saturday's one-sided IPL match here.
Kohli was once again dismissed outside the off-stump off the very first delivery he faced as RCB were shot out for a meagre 68 in just 16.1 overs. This was the sixth lowest total in the history of IPL.
The Sunrisers pace attack led by Marco Jansen (3/25 in 4 overs) and ably supported by Umran Malik (1/19 in 4 overs) and T Natarajan (3/10 in 3 overs) left the star-studded RCB line-up rattled with pace, swing and seam.
Never a bad time to discuss cricket! Scenes we love to see. __#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #IPL2022 #Mission2022 #RCB #____RCB #RCBvSRH pic.twitter.com/OZ15LYMZI9
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) April 23, 2022
In reply, it took SRH only eight overs as Abhishek Sharma butchered an already deflated RCB attack to score 47 off 28 balls in company of Kane Williamson (16 not out).
The win also took SRH to second place with 10 points while RCB, who are still placed third, will like to forget this game as a bad dream. But one would wonder if Kohli can do the same as it's only getting worse for one of the contemporary greats in world cricket.
The problems are very real and unfortunately, one doesn't see any corrective measures in his approach as same kind of technical mistakes are being repeated again and again.
Some years back, it was James Anderson and now it is a Dushmantha Chameera and Marco Jansen, who are exposing the big chink in Kohli's armour.
There couldn't have been a quicker end to a contest as Jansen removed Faf du Plessis (5), Kohli (0) and Anuj Rawat (0) off second, third and final delivery of the second over to make it 8 for 3.
In case of Jansen, it was seam movement off the pitch with a few that were angled across, some that held its line while Natarajan got some movement in the air and Malik was unleashing his thunderbolts at upward of 150 clicks.
In between, left-arm spinner Jagadeesha Suchith (2/12) was also unrelenting as RCB never got elbow room to get some momentum going their way.
An extremely hard day at the office.
Time to learn from this and move forward. #PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #IPL2022 #Mission2022 #RCB #____RCB #RCBvSRH pic.twitter.com/T7foQTLEGg
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) April 23, 2022
It soon became 20 for 4 when Natarajan got Glenn Maxwell (12) caught brilliantly by skipper Kane Williamson at mid-off. The other player to reach double figure was Suyash Prabhudesai (15).
But, it is Kohli's dismissal that would certainly deflate his legion of fans as his problems outside the off-stump seems to have resurfaced.
Jansen did pose problems for Kohli during the South Africa Test series few months back and again bowled the ideal Test match length, full and getting the ball to either shape in or hold its line.
In the last match against Lucknow, it was the backward point that was in operation and Kohli's propensity to jab at deliveries on off-stump channel with hard hands caused his undoing with Aiden Markram snapping it in second slip.
Check out how RCB was trolled on Twitter after heavy loss vs SRH:
If it's is true the #IPL is haunted _#IPL2022 #RCBvSRH #RCB #Cricket #IPLT20 #T20Cricket #ViratKohli #IPL2022 #viratkholi pic.twitter.com/m0axq7PHFW
— AMOL MAHAJAN (@amoldmahajan) April 23, 2022
Yeah world of RCB 'ians indeed turned upside down https://t.co/LkYzWa5pKy
— baby bear __ (@Aymankh75487599) April 23, 2022
RCB Head Coach be like __ pic.twitter.com/FtpY4FIVbS
— Jayesh ramani (@jayeshbr97) April 23, 2022
With PTI inputs
