Joshua Philippe impresses, bowlers keep up the fight: 3 talking points from RCB vs SRH

It might feel like another tough pill to swallow for RCB, but despite another defeat, the team still sits in the second position. With everything to play for going into the final game of the league phase, RCB will look to draw as many positives from their third consecutive loss before they take on the Delhi Capitals on Monday. We look at 3 talking points from a disappointing display in Sharjah.

Joshua Philippe - An all-conditions player

When a player from outside the sub-continent opens the innings in the IPL, it is not an anomaly for the bowling captain to turn to a spinner. A tactic which has been overused, yet is effective. Josh Philippe, it would not be wrong to say, was playing in conditions which were far away from the tracks of Australia filled with pace and bounce. And yet, he kept his head down when needed to, mixed caution with aggression, maintained his intent to put away to the boundary the slightest hint of a bad ball. Given a run at the top, Philippe is proving to be worth all the hype. An innings of 32 when wickets were falling around him, the track seeming like a minefield ready to explode any moment, Philippe displayed composure and held the innings together.

Washington Sundar - Proving his worth with the bat and the ball

When RCB’s Director of cricket operations Mike Hesson said that Washington Sundar would be playing a bigger role with the bat this season, he was not lying. Washington Sundar looks comfortable, he looks every bit of the part when he bats in the middle overs. Forced by circumstances to come in to bat during the middle overs, Sundar needed to keep the innings intact and not let it crumble down. He maintained his shape well as a batsman and kept it simple, rotating strike while not letting dot balls pile up.

When it was his turn to bowl, he was hit out of the park the very first ball by David Warner. That’s a pretty intimidating prospect for a spinner to pull the over back, even more so on a ground like Sharjah. But, Washington proved his mettle once again, coming back to dismiss Warner off the very next ball. His 3 overs went for only 21 runs in an innings when the overall run rate of SRH was over 8.5 an over. Champion stuff, indeed.

The bowlers keep the fight going against the odds

It would have been easy to let the game run its course. When Manish Pandey and Wriddhiman Saha had already put on a half-century stand and half the target was already knocked off, the prospects of any comeback felt feeble. But, the RCB bowlers did not let their shoulders drop. Yuzvendra Chahal and Isuru Udana controlled the middle overs, picking up three wickets between them in 6.1 overs. The target was eventually achieved by the Sunrisers, but might just have been delayed by that small margin that may play a crucial part should it come down to Net Run Rate deciding RCB’s fate in the Dream11 IPL 2020.