Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir reckons Devdutt Padikkal left too many runs for AB de Villiers during Royal Challengers Bangalore’s run-chase of 142 against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
Padikkal just could not get the momentum in his innings as he failed to even score at run-a-ball.
The RCB opener trudged to 41 runs off 52 balls and could not get going in the run-chase. On the other hand, Glenn Maxwell was able to turn the tables as he scored 40 runs off just 25 balls.
In fact, AB de Villiers came to the crease when 35 balls were remaining in the run-chase but he got to face only 13 balls and thus could not get his team over the line. 18 runs were required off the last two overs and Jason Holder bowled a fine penultimate over as he conceded only five runs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was then able to defend 13 runs in the final over as SRH won by four runs in the end.
In fact, Shahbaz Ahmed played a nice little cameo of 9-ball 14 but AB could only score 19 runs off 13 balls he faced and could not get his team over the line.
In a discussion on ESPN Cricinfo, Gambhir said: “You expect RCB to chase anything with the kind of batting they have? On this wicket in Abu Dhabi, 190 got chased a couple of days. Yes, there was some very good bowling from Sunrisers but there was some very mediocre batting from RCB as well.”
“Devdutt Padikkal batted for 52 balls for his 41. If you’ve batted for so many deliveries, you expect the batter to finish off the match. You’ve left too much for AB de Villiers. When Maxwell was going great guns, you got him run out as well. That was not the best single. Unfortunately for RCB, it was not the best batting but it was very smart bowling and very smart captaincy as well (by SRH).”
Surprisingly, RCB decided to bat AB de Villiers at number six, which didn’t make much sense. Out-of-form Daniel Christain batted at number three whereas KS Bharat batted at number four ahead of in-form Maxwell and AB. Gambhir was not at all impressed by this batting order.
“Absolutely not. By promoting Dan (Christian) to No. 3, you are asking (Srikar) Bharat to bat at No. 4, Maxwell comes down at No. 5 and then your best batter, the genius (AB de Villiers) bats at No. 6. He should be batting nothing below than No. 5.”
RCB will play their next match against DC at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday.
