IPL 2018 | RCB and MI will have to play like their lives depend on it, says Sunil Gavaskar

05/01/2018

Sunil Gavaskar feels that both Bangalore and Mumbai, who now have to win all of their matches to qualify for the knockouts, would give their all and play like their lives depends on the result. The campaign would be almost over for the team which loses on Tuesday in Chinnaswamy stadium.

Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians are both stuck at the bottom half of the table after managing just two wins to their campaign so far. Tuesday’s do or die match in Chinnaswamy would definitely determine the faith of both the teams. The one ending up on the losing side would bid goodbye to their hopes of reaching the playoffs.

Gavaskar has criticized the fielding of both the teams, which has been the biggest differentiator in the winning and the losing team. In his TOI column, the former cricketer has expressed disappointment with the sides’ poor fielding despite having some of the biggest names in that department.

“Two teams in the lower half of the table clash at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in the knowledge that a loss will pretty much mean the end of their campaign in this year’s IPL. Both Mumbai and Bangalore have some of the biggest names in the game but have not been able to achieve the consistency in both batting and bowling that makes the difference in the ultra-short format. Both teams have also fielded pretty ordinarily, dropping catches at vital stages which has allowed the opposition batsmen to flourish and get match changing scores,” wrote Gavaskar in his column.

Gavaskar showed his admiration for RCB’s team on paper, but also mentioned that their excellence has been limited to paper only as they haven’t shown any results on field. Despite their strong batting lineup, RCB has scored 200 just once this season against CSK, which they ended up losing due to mediocre bowling.

“It is hard to find a top-four batting line-up as good as the Royal Challengers, yet they have got past 200 only once so far in the tournament. They will be hoping that their talismanic batsman AB de Villiers will have recovered and is fit for this all-important contest. Brendon McCullum and Quinton de Kock are a destructive opening pair but have only got a half-century opening partnership against Kolkata. Both have not been able to go on to play the kind of impact innings that can propel the team to a huge total,” he wrote.

Gavaskar has appreciated Kohli’s brilliant knock of unbeaten 92 against Mumbai and stated that Mumbai would not want Kohli to play another one of those innings. He pointed out that RCB lack a finisher in the end.

“Virat Kohli played a brilliant innings against Mumbai in their away game and going by the touch he displayed against Kolkata, Mumbai should be watching out for another scorcher from the Bangalore skipper. The other issue is that once these guys are out there is no finisher for the Bangalore team,” he mentioned.

Bowling has been a headache for Kohli from the start, to which he has not been able to find any solution yet. Mumbai, however, has also not been very consistent either despite their formidable bowling lineup. And Gavaskar has been of the opinion that Mayank Markande has lost the effectiveness that he possessed in the starting of the season and Mustafizur has not been able to find his ‘fizz’ since the start of the season. Gavaskar has insisted both the teams to work on their bowling.

“More importantly their bowling is inconsistent which makes Kohli’s task even harder as to whom to bring on and at what stage of the innings. Bowling is a problem for Mumbai too, though Bumrah bowled superbly against Chennai. Markande has lost a bit of the spark that he had at the start of the tournament and the fizz is not quite there in Mustafizur, too, so far this season,” he wrote.

Given that both their wins came when Rohit scored, Gavaskar has opined that Mumbai have been too dependent on Rohit Sharma and other batsmen too will have to put their hand up.

“Rohit Sharma is the key for when he scores, Mumbai invariably get a good score and it was good to see him bat at No. 3 ahead of the young and impetuous but talented Ishan Kishan. Both the Mumbai wins so far have come when the skipper has played a big innings. Suryakumar Yadav is batting beautifully and Evin Lewis is as ferocious a hitter as fellow West Indians Chris Gayle and Andre Russell,” Gavaskar wrote.

Both the sides would require winning all their games from now and Gavaskar has stated that it would be continuous semi-finals for both the teams.

“It’s going to be like a semifinal for every game for both teams and they have to play as if their lives depend on the result,” he added.