Starc breathes life into Royal Challengers

Watching Royal Challengers Bangalore over the last three days, you are bound to wonder how in the name of strategic timeouts were they placed at the bottom of the table when they reached Ahmedabad. One of the simpler differences between this Royal Challengers, which has conceded just 225 in two games, and the team on the losing streak earlier is one man's collective figures of 12-0-66-7 over the last three games. There is talk that owners of the brand Royal Challenge have pulled out or want to pull out of this team, but for the moment Mitchell Starc seems to have put the royal challenge back in Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Yet a thumping defeat at the hands of Chennai Super Kings despite Starc's 4-0-24-1 is evidence that the support cast has done its bit in the turnaround. That even before Starc there were bowlers who were doing well, but struggling to get it together at the same time, and missing the leader of the attack.

Yuzvendra Chahal is a good young legspinner, rated highly by former Test legspinner L Sivaramakrishnan because he doesn't bowl wrong'uns gratuitously just because T20 is a game of variations. Harshal Patel and Iqbal Abdullah have had their moments but they have been inconsistent. David Wiese, chosen ahead of Darren Sammy, has been chipping in with timely wickets. Varun Aaron has been quick but inaccurate. They haven't all done well at the same time, though. As Aaron said while receiving the Man-of-the-Match award, "Been bowling in patches in previous matches, but it all came together today."

It nearly didn't actually. Aaron might not have played if Chahal hadn't been forced to sit out with a finger injury. He wants to bowl fast, but he came on to bowl at 40 for 0 after four overs and 36 for 0 after two in two of his three earlier matches. The ball comes out with that bit of extra confidence when you come on to bowl at 2 for 1, when the opposition has seen the ball swing. Here too Aaron went for 20 in his first two overs, but as he said later all three boundaries had come off edges. You tend to forget these details when the ball is flying at the other end too. When luck is not going your way, it helps to know you have the world's best limited-overs bowler - now that bowling actions have been regulated - on your side.

Virat Kohli paid tribute to Starc's effect. "It [Starc and Aaron] is a good combination, but sometimes you need that experienced guy, be it with the ball or with the bat," Kohli said. "The way Mitch picks up wickets with his swinging yorkers is morale-boosting."

The yorkers brought Starc three Delhi Daredevils wickets. One with an in-swinger to the right-hand batsman, and two swinging away from round the wicket. Look at his reaction on pegging back that off stump, and you know it's all coming too easily for Starc at the moment. It won't always be thus: there will be days when the support cast won't do as well, when the opposition will have wickets in hand going into the final few overs; that's when the real test will arrive for the leader of the attack.