PBKS batters must stay calm — reacting out of fear would be a mistake

When Royal Challengers Bengaluru blew their batting plan in the first qualifier, PBKS’ entire world fell apart. Shreyas Iyer‘s team played carefree for the majority of the season and dominated their way to their first postseason berth since 2014. However, in the first high-stakes game, wings were badly clipped, giving them much to think about. PBKS bowling coach James Hopes doesn’t anticipate the squad going off course with the bat, even after being bowled out for 101.

“After we performed well with the bat in the first over, things kind of took off. Since we have to fly tomorrow [Friday] and get up to play another game on Sunday, we must process it and move on before the end of tonight. We will now have to do it the hard way. However, Hopes expressed optimism with an early finish on Thursday, saying, “I hope we meet RCB again on Tuesday night [in the final].”

“The worst thing our batters can do now is blink and start jumping at shadows and second-guessing themselves,” he said with conviction. Due to careful reconnaissance and judicious use of the auction budget, PBKS entered the first qualifier with the second-best scoring rate (10.02) and an army of reliable uncapped hitters. Then, Ricky Ponting and Shreyas supported them to continue being carefree in spite of the challenges that were ahead, and they succeeded. Hopes insisted that they don’t need to “go back to the drawing board” despite the fact that Q1 was one of the few instances in which the heavy metal strategy backfired.

In the second over off Yash Dayal, Priyansh Arya found the cover fielder, starting Punjab’s procession that evening. Before Josh Inglis was hit by Josh Hazlewood’s powerful length, Prabhsimran Singh and Shreyas were eliminated by a pair of bad shot choices. The Australian’s brief outburst was cut short by Suyash Sharma’s googly, despite Marcus Stoinis’s best efforts to push back. Musheer Khan, who was a forced impact substitute in the first innings, left for a three-ball duck, while Shashank Singh, PBKS’s crisis man from the previous season, was also destroyed by the same variation.

“We didn’t have a fantastic night with the bat, to be honest, but we have two days to play another final and prove ourselves. After working for two and a half months to earn the right to a second opportunity, we intend to take use of it.

“Ahmedabad has a very good pitch in the past, and we know we’ll need to put in a lot of effort and score fast. By no means is it a case of starting over. We have been working for two and a half months to be in a situation where we have a second chance, and we will now need to take advantage of that second chance,” Hopes stated.

According to Hopes, there was still a strong conviction that counterattacking had gotten the club this far despite the finest bowlers and strategies. However, he acknowledged that the timing of the recaliberation versus RCB should have been better.

“I said that I would have given Josh the second over and watched the ball nip around a little bit if I had seen Bhuvi’s first over. Under such circumstances, both of them are elite bowlers. Although our hitters were a touch careless, they have counterattacked throughout the year, and it has often been successful. Tonight, it didn’t work.