NEWS
Follow UsAdam Griffith, bowling coach of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), was full of praise for Vyshak Vijaykumar on the back of the 27-year-old’s strong showing against Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on May 4 (Saturday), and asserted that the youngster’s ‘unique’ skillset makes him invaluable to the RCB pace attack.
Vyshak has only made four appearances all season, but has stepped up whenever he’s been called upon, producing exceptional showings against GT and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), both at the Chinnaswamy. Not many pacers specialize bowling outside the powerplay, but Vyshak is one of them, with each of his 87 balls this season coming with the older ball.
On May 4 (Saturday), it was once again post the powerplay that Vyshak shone, finishing with figures of 2/23, maintaining a superb economy of 7.7 in the 7-15 phase.
Griffith admitted that the youngster has been unlucky to find himself in and out of the side, but lavished praise on the Karnataka man on the back of his superb showing against the Titans.
“It’s been tough for him [Vyshak] because he’s been in and out of the side. He’s really bowled well this year, probably the only game where he struggled was the SRH game, where everyone struggled,” Griffith said at the post match press conference.
“He brings a skillset that is different to the rest of the guys. We don’t use him in the powerplay because he doesn’t really swing the ball. But what he does really well is the change-ups. His slower balls are excellent, his yorkers are really good and he’s got a really good bouncer.
“So through the middle phase and the back end of the innings, he is someone who can create opportunities.
“He is also, at the same time, someone who can bowl defensively when he needs to. I think he’s done that really well this season.”
Vyshak helped RCB control the middle-overs, but, against GT, it was in the powerplay that the Reds essentially won the game, reducing the two-time finalists to 23/3, conceding all of two boundaries.
Powerplay bowling had been RCB’s strength last season, but they were hideous with the new ball at the start of this season, averaging 110.8 at an economy of 10.5 in their first seven games of the season. However, these numbers have improved drastically over the last four games, with the side taking 11 wickets at an average of 18.4 and economy of 8.4.
Post the GT clash, Griffith said that the team, of late, has focused a lot on getting it right in the powerplay, and claimed that improved lines have made a significant difference to the team’s powerplay fortunes with the ball.
“The start of the tournament wasn’t great for us [as a bowling unit], especially in the powerplay. It’s something we focused a lot on, recently. We worked really hard to ensure better starts with the ball. Tonight was one of our better powerplays in recent times, so it was good to see the boys’ hard work pay off,” Griffith said.
“We’ve swung the ball all tournament, but what we’ve done in the last couple of games is we’ve bowled a better line. We’ve talked a lot about bowling a lot straighter and attacking the stumps as much as we can, to challenge the batter’s defence and make them play aggressive shots if they want to come at us. Tonight the boys put the batters exactly where we wanted them.”
Until May 4 (Saturday), the Chinnaswamy had all season been a batter’s paradise, but the GT clash offered a lot to the bowlers, especially the quicks. Griffith said that, going forward, he hopes to see more such wickets that offer a lot of pace and bounce.
“We always want pace on the wicket here. We love it when we see it [pace],” the RCB bowling coach said.
“It always swings here [in Bengaluru], not just for the first or second over, it often swings all the way up to the fourth over. When the wicket’s got pace in it, when we see it bouncing, we really enjoy that. Our batting group likes that as well. If we could see fast wickets here, we'd be really happy.”
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