At the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on April 18, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) lost their third straight home game to Punjab Kings (PBKS), and former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag blasted the team’s hitters for making poor strokes and wasting their wickets.
Rain interruptions forced the match to be shortened to 14 overs each side, and the Bengaluru-based team could only manage to reach 95/9. Due to Bengaluru’s relative ease of chasing, the visitors decided to field after winning the toss.
On the fourth delivery of the opening over, RCB lost opener Phil Salt, and Virat Kohli returned to the pavilion in a same manner.
With Tim David’s (50 off 26) bat accounting for almost half of the team’s total, the wickets kept falling. The batsmen were scolded by Sehwag for lacking “common sense.”
“RCB did not bat very well. To escape, each of them made rash shots. The batters were all out to nice balls. A minimum of one batter ought to have exercised common judgement. They could have fought if they had had wickets in hand, as they could have reached 110 or 120 in 14 overs, according to Sehwag on.
The pitch and outfield conditions were not ideal after the rain, which also caused Punjab Kings to get stranded at one point during their innings even though they had a low score to chase. But the team was taken home by Nehal Wadhera (33* off 19), who stayed to the very end. Josh Hazlewood (3/14) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/26) put Punjab Kings to the test, but the diminutive target was unable to hold the opposition for very long.”
In the meantime, Sehwag added that Rajat Patidar, the captain of the RCB, will need to find a way to address the home problems. The defeat to Punjab Kings was RCB’s 46th home loss, which is noteworthy given their historically bad record there.
“Patidar needs to reflect and create a solution. Their home games have not been winning. Their hitters are consistently struggling, but their bowlers are performing brilliantly. If your hitters are consistently failing at home, it’s not good. Who’s going to fix it? He said.
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