Royal Challengers Bangalore’s wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat played a wonderful innings and stitched a decisive partnership along with Glenn Maxwell to take his side home against Rajasthan Royals. Chasing 150, RCB got a quick start from Devdutt Padikkal and captain Virat Kohli before the opening pair were dismissed and matters became a little complicated.
KS Bharat, however, stepped up to the task and played a delightful knock of 44 runs from 35 deliveries to position RCB well in the game once again. His knock was the highest from an RCB player batting in the number three position. In the post-match virtual press conference, KS Bharat called the number three batting position a beautiful spot to bat in T20 cricket. The job of the batter is to keep the scoreboard ticking at a fair pace which will help him set up the game brilliantly for the hard-hitters later on.
“No. 3 is always a beautiful spot to bat. It asks a lot of questions if you are not ready for it. At RCB, we have always focused on keeping the strike going and getting busy right from ball one. The little things of calling well, running well and rotating the strike – All these pointers play a huge role in building up a partnership. At No. 3, if you can keep the scoreboard ticking at 8-9 per over, you have a good pace.
“You have people like Maxi (Maxwell) and AB (de Villiers) coming at the death or say after 12 overs. You have those wickets in hand and you can go all out towards the end of the innings. So the message was clear – I should get a partnership going and we are sticking to it,” Bharat stated.
Bharat and Maxwell might have led the way during the run chase for Royal Challengers Bangalore, but their bowlers did a fine job to restrict Rajasthan Royals to a pretty low score. With figures of 2 for 18, Yuzvendra Chahal was adjudged as the Player of the Match. Chahal got rid of dangerous batters in Mahipal Lomror and Liam Livingstone and set the tempo beautifully with his economic spells.
When enquired about the challenge of keeping to Chahal’s bowling, Bharat talked about the importance of focus and the fact that there can be no gap in concentration.
“He is a world-class bowler as we all know. He varies his pace exceptionally well. You have to be right in the game every ball. You can’t fade off even for a single moment. I was just trying to keep myself in the game, trying to read him from his hands. We all know the lines and lengths he bowls, so the keeper is in play each and every ball. You’ve got to just enjoy it,” Bharat explained.
