LSG vs RCB, IPL 2022 Eliminator: How has KL Rahul struggled to pace innings and other burning questions – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Royal Challengers Bangalore broke the Eliminator jinx by squeezing out a 14-run win over Lucknow Super Giants on Thursday night. After exiting the tournament twice in the Eliminator in successive seasons, RCB managed to turn it around through a spectacular hundred from Rajat Patidar, the impressive No.3 batter.

But this wasn’t his first time saving the team when in trouble. Here’s more on the burning questions from the game.

Rajat Patidar brought up his maiden T20 ton during the IPL 2022 Eliminator between LSG and RCB. Sportzpics

How Rajat Patidar has stepped up as RCB’s man in strife multiple times

With Faf du Plessis gone for a duck, Rajat Patidar stepped up from No.3 to play one of the best knocks in an IPL playoff game. The 49-ball hundred was the joint-quickest in the playoff stage of the IPL as Patidar took RCB past 200.

Time and again this year, Patidar has played a solid hand in strife for RCB. The three times he crossed 40 were all after RCB had lost either Faf du Plessis or Virat Kohli for a duck. Each of them came at three different venues, but all of them came from No.3.

Patidar’s 40-plus knocks

52 (32) vs GT, Brabourne – Faf du Plessis 0
48 (38) vs SRH, Wankhede – Kohli 0
112* (54) vs LSG, Eden Gardens – Faf du Plessis 0

An excellent player of spin, Patidar currently has the best strike-rate against spin in the season (177.3). It spiked on Wednesday night after he spectacularly took down Ravi Bishnoi and Krunal Pandya, smashing them for 58 runs off just 22 balls.

Why Ravi Bishnoi’s ravishing start to T20 cricket is unravelling pretty quickly?

Ravi Bishnoi shot to prominence in the last edition of the IPL, impressing with his excellent disguise of the wrong ‘un and baffling both left- and right-handers alike. He was so impressive that an India call-up followed soon after he ended the season with 12 wickets at an average of 18.5 and an economy rate of 6.34. While he has played five extra matches compared to last year this time around, Bishnoi has only 13 wickets, one more than last year, with an economy rate of 8.44.

Worryingly, Bishnoi has struggled to take wickets and restrict the scoring rate, which meant Lucknow benching him in the middle. He came back for the last couple of games but went for 45 runs in his four overs in the decisive fixture, including five boundaries in an over off Patidar.

While Bishnoi has continued to be decent against left-handers (economy rate of 7.7), he has gone at 9 runs per over against right-handers with his googlies getting too predictable.

How Avesh Khan has consistently dominated the big guns

Avesh Khan might have leaked 44 runs in his four overs but as has been the case through the season, he managed to get a big wicket; dismissing Virat Kohli for 25 off 24 balls. Avesh ends the season with 18 wickets at an average of 23.11 and an economy rate of 8.73. Although inferior to his numbers last season — 24 wickets at 18.75 and 7.37 economy rate — Avesh has consistently found a way against the top players.

Some of his wickets this season include Jos Buttler, Andre Russell, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Nitish Rana, Nicholas Pooran, Moeen Ali and Hardik Pandya. Notably, he dismissed Buttler, the Orange Cap holder in the season twice in three balls, although he still went for runs against the others in the same game.

How KL Rahul’s knock let LSG down

KL Rahul’s strike-rate is under the scanner and not for the first time. In yet another controversial knock, the Lucknow Super Giants skipper and opener hit 79 off 58 balls in a run-chase of 208. Without delving too much into the specifics, to state in layman terms, Rahul’s scoring rate of 8.4 runs per over was two runs per over below that of the required run rate of 10.4. He did this while consuming nearly 50 per cent of the deliveries available in the innings.

Needless to say, the rest of the batters had to make up for Rahul’s slow rate and failed to do so. However, it’s worth noting that the combined strike rate of his colleagues was 9.02, above that of Rahul’s. With players like Marcus Stoinis, Evin Lewis and Krunal Pandya waiting, Rahul’s acceleration arrived too late. His first 42 balls saw him score a mere 48 runs. At this stage, Lucknow needed 99 runs to win off just seven overs. Rahul finished with more than 600 runs for the third successive time in an IPL season but once again disappointed with his strike-rates, while maintaining an exceptional average. This has been the story of every season since 2019.

KL Rahul in the last four IPL seasons

2022: 616 runs @ 51.3, SR: 135.4
2021: 626 runs @ 62.6, SR: 138.8
2020: 670 runs @ 55.8, SR: 129.3
2019: 583 runs @ 53.9, SR: 135.4

Why RCB need to give better support for Harshal Patel

Harshal Patel produced a brilliant spell against Lucknow Super Giants, turning the game on its head by conceding just 17 runs in his last two overs (the 18th and 20th overs of the innings). In the death overs this season, Harshal has gone at an economy rate of 9.38 while every other RCB quick has gone at over 11 runs per over. Harshal also has the most wickets in this phase (9 wickets) by an RCB bowler. But with the others not stepping up, RCB have the second-worst bowling average in the season in the death.

That they play one of the better big-hitting teams in the death overs (Rajasthan Royals have the third-best batting strike-rate in the death this year) in the second qualifier makes RCB’s death bowling a big part of their plans for the big game. They need to get their act together and support Harshal, something Josh Hazlewood did last night in the penultimate over, dismissing Rahul and Krunal off successive balls and giving away just nine runs in the over.

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