IPL 2020: RCB vs RR Game Plan 1- The Gopal and Archer threat

RCB vs RR – The 15th match of the IPL 2020 tournament between the teams, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals, could all be about match-ups. We take a look at a key game plan that could play a role in the RCB vs RR IPL fixture.

RCB vs RR: Can Shreyas Gopal continue to create trouble for RCB?

Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are two of the world’s best batsmen without a doubt. They will be the cynosure of any team’s pre-match planning when the opposition is going to be Royal Challengers Bangalore. On most days, they don’t seem to have a weakness, such is the quality and prowess but even the best have some areas of concern. While de Villiers’ iffy record against Krunal Pandya is well-publicised, his numbers against Rajasthan Royals leggie Shreyas Gopal isn’t great either.  Given his numbers against Gopal, de Villiers will be hoping his superb current form could mask the troubles.

 

It is not only de Villiers who struggles against Gopal as even his best mate at RCB, Virat Kohli doesn’t have promising numbers against Rajasthan’s ace spinner. Kohli was dismissed by Mumbai’s leg-spinner Rahul Chahar even in the previous match. Kohli has also not hit the straps in IPL 2020 as a whole with just 18 runs from three matches.

 Interestingly, the key RCB duo have only got out to Shreyas Gopal from the Rajasthan side since IPL 2019. While Gopal will once again be their threat, his own form has been a cause of concern for Rajasthan so far. While someone like Gopal should definitely get some leeway after playing the first two matches in Sharjah, his team would still have expected better returns until now. The problem for Gopal has been the fact that he has been either too full or too short and batsmen have taken advantage of that inconsistency in length. Gopal would be better served if he mixes up his variations on a good length.

RCB vs RR – Jofra Archer- another big gun to watch out for

The other threat for RCB’s batting line-up would be Jofra Archer. After adjusting to the demands of the Sharjah wicket, Archer was back at full tilt against KKR in what was probably the best spell of IPL 2020 so far. He bowled full, back of a length and bouncers all at 150 KPH to have the KKR batsmen hopping in the crease. Like mentioned in the previous game plan for the match between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders, Jofra Archer had to ditch the slower delivery or at least reduce the percentage of those and that is exactly what he did in the previous game.

Archer bowled as many as 19 deliveries over 140 KPH when compared to a combined 16 deliveries in the first two matches. The number of slower balls which will come under 125 KPH also came down to just three balls when compared to a combined 14 balls in the first two games.

After the completion of Rajasthan’s bowling inning against KKR, Jofra Archer himself spoke about the change in plan. He said, “I didn’t see the speeds on the big screen, so not sure at what speed I was bowling. You can hit your lengths comfortably here as compared to Sharjah where even good balls can go to the boundary” Like Dubai, Abu Dhabi has also given enough purchase for the seamers with the big boundaries also coming in as an advantage. So, we could see Archer persisting with some high-end pace against RCB.

Jofra Archer hasn’t played much against the premier RCB batsmen and that has resulted in him not really able to cause trouble for them. However, Archer might have some specific plans for each one of the batsmen. For Virat Kohli, Archer might tempt the RCB skipper by bowling full and wide which has been a constant nemesis for several years. When it comes to AB de Villiers, Archer could unleash his sharp bouncer especially after looking at the way Jasprit Bumrah hurried Mr.360 in the super over a few days ago.  Archer, in particular, is known to have one of the meanest bouncers going around right now.

ALSO READ: RCB vs RR Game Plan 2 – Expose RR middle-order

For all we know, Kohli might just casually drive the wide and full delivery to the fence while de Villiers might smash the bouncer 20 rows back. However, it is a battle worth watching for.  Given Archer’s world-class quality, he will be an obvious threat against Aaron Finch who tends to struggle against incoming deliveries, Devdutt Padikkal given the youngster wouldn’t have faced pace like that and Shivam Dube given his susceptible base against high-end pace. S

So, the plan for RCB and Kohli/de Villiers is simple, let Padikkal, Finch and Dube take on Rajasthan’s two leg-spinners and especially Shreyas Gopal or at least reduce the risky shots while the star duo can probably look to score the maximum runs off Archer, Tom Curran and Ankit Rajpoot.