Talking Points: Why bowl Dale Steyn and Shivam Dube at the death?
What worked well for Kings XI Punjab, and where Royal Challengers Bangalore erred
With the Kings XI at 100 for 1 after 12 overs, Virat Kohli brought back Navdeep Saini for his third over. Saini had been easily RCB's best death bowler since the beginning of last season, going at 8.85 runs an over in the last four overs as compared to 12.52 for the rest of the team. So why not leave two overs for him for the death? At that stage, Kohli had used three overs of Yuzvendra Chahal and wanted to keep one back for Glenn Maxwell, whom Chahal had dismissed five times in eight previous meetings. Saini was the next most likely to get a wicket, so Kohli was, perhaps, looking to be aggressive.
Maxwell arrives. But you can't go to Saini. Only one over of Chahal. #RCB's Bowling resources are thin but the deployment is equally intriguing. #KXIPvRCB
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) September 24, 2020
Josh Philippe opened for the Sydney Sixers in the previous season of the Big Bash League and averaged 37.46, so the move was designed to get the best out of him, as Kohli said after the game. The idea was also to have him play a pinch-hitter's role and leave Kohli and AB de Villiers to finish the innings.
"Chasing a big total tonight we'll give ourselves a bit more depth in the middle overs ... and Josh can go in and play a counterattacking knock, then AB and myself can really put pressure in the middle overs."Virat Kohli explains the thinking behind promoting Josh Philippe
Mujeeb-ur-Rahman finished the recent Caribbean Premier League season as the second-highest wicket-taker and Chris Gayle, well, is the Universe Boss. So why did the Kings XI leave out both? Gayle's declining strike rate recently may not have worked in his favour: since 2018, he strikes at 137.44, which falls short of Glenn Maxwell's 148.59 and Nicholas Pooran's 142.80 in the same period. Also, a settled opening pair of Rahul and Mayank Agarwal makes it further difficult for Gayle to sneak in.
Umesh Yadav has gone at 11.85 runs per over this season without having taken a wicket. Things weren't much better last season either, when he went at 9.80. Yadav's biggest issue seems to be bowling too many balls on the pads. Since the start of last season, he has bowled 37% of his balls on the stumps and 12% down the leg. As a result, he has been taken for runs on the leg side; more than 60% of the runs he has conceded this season have been scored square or behind square on the leg side. In the 2018 season, though - which has been Yadav's best IPL so far - he had bowled 59% of his deliveries outside off, a clear sign of his success.
Dustin Silgardo is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo