MATCH STORY
Follow UsRajat Patidar came into the Delhi Capitals encounter at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru having scored just 61 runs in five home games. An average of just 12.2. So much so that when RCB had flown out of Garden City for a slew of away games in April, his position in the XI was in massive doubt. And justifiably so.
It’s not harsh to assume that Patidar was lucky to have retained his spot, thanks to Glenn Maxwell finding things even more destabilizing to force a run off his blade. For a team mighty dependent on Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis to do the bulk of heavy lifting, it was prudent to continue with Patidar and to expect him to come good at some point.
Patidar didn’t disappoint. In five away games, he managed 207 runs at an average of 41.4 with four half-centuries to his name. Add on top of that a strike rate of 218 - you were seeing a batter at the peak of his prowess again. There were no compromises on the very currency on which he has built a reputation among RCB fans.
On Sunday night at the Chinnaswamy, with Kohli and du Plessis back in the pavilion within four overs, the onus was not just to build on the top of the foundation but to lay it out all by himself.
There was Will Jacks at the other end - but he is nothing if not a hitter. Trusting Jacks to rebuild was like throwing a pound of flesh in front of a hungry tiger and expecting her not to eat.
Patidar had to make the effort, and thus he did. Sure, he was helped by two dropped catches - one by Shai Hope at long-on that should have been a regulation catch at this level before the stand-in skipper Axar Patel failed to hold on to a relatively difficult catch - but that gave Patidar confidence to attack further.
One of Indian cricket’s finest batters against spin, Patidar was right in his element throughout his innings. With a minimum filter of 40 balls, only Abhishek Sharma has bettered Patidar’s strike rate against spin (239) this season, and only three batters have hit more boundaries against the slower bowlers.
That tells you something about his prodigious ability - it wasn’t a surprise how he was able to take down the duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel with such effortless ease. When he was eventually shown the door after scoring 55 runs, things started to look way better for Royal Challengers Bengaluru than when he had entered the wicket at 36/2.
For Patidar, it was long overdue to have the acceptance at Chinnaswamy this season. After bumping game after game, he has now become the second-most consistent batter for the side in the last five matches. It’s not a coincidence that also clashed with RCB’s best performances of the season.
Even though the path to the playoffs qualification doesn’t seem rosy at the moment, there is always something to take away from. It is all that matters for him at this moment.
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