“Shot selection matters this time”: Patidar admits RCB struggling with two-paced wickets and bounce at home

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 23 (ANI): Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have yet to win a single match at home this season, which contrasts significantly with their perfect record in away games, where they have won all five. In each of their three home defeats, the story has been the same, they lost the toss and were asked to bat first on tough pitches, lost early wickets, ended up with low scores, and then couldn’t defend those totals as dew made batting easier for the chasing team, as per ESPNcricinfo.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru will face Rajasthan Royals on Thursday in Bengaluru
Liam Livingstone and Tim David are the only RCB batters to score a fifty at home this season. Away from home, they’ve had nine scores of over 50. At home, their top six batters average just 13.94 runs per innings–the lowest among all teams–and their strike rate is 117.28, the second lowest. While their batting has been powerful away, it hasn’t worked at all in Bengaluru.
One of the main problems is that RCB have tried to attack too much too early in the powerplay on home pitches, which aren’t as easy to bat on as they used to be. At home, they lose a wicket every 12 balls in the powerplay. They show the same intent, but the results are very different.
Their top-order has struggled with the extra bounce at home. Of the seven wickets they’ve lost to pace in the powerplay, five were from good-length deliveries, and two from back-of-length balls. On those back-of-length deliveries, RCB’s batters have a very low strike rate of 58.06. Interestingly, they haven’t lost a single wicket to these types of balls in the powerplay when playing away.
In their last home game–a 14-over match shortened by rain against Punjab Kings–the problems showed again. After losing the toss, Phil Salt top-edged a bouncer from Arshdeep Singh, Virat Kohli mistimed a pull shot, and both Livingstone and Krunal Pandya fell to short balls.
“Absolutely, you are right, the shot selection matters,” Patidar said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
“Because this time the wickets are two-paced wickets and the bounce is varying, so I think the bowlers are getting a lot of help, the way their ball is dipping, the way they are getting the bounce, so I think the more we focus on hitting (behind) square of the wicket, the better it will be,” he added.
RCB seem to take more risks at home, possibly because they’re always setting a target and don’t know what score is safe. As a result, they lose a wicket to pace every five balls while trying to hit big at home. Away from home, they lose one only every 21 balls. (ANI)

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