2 mistakes and 1 masterstroke by RCB in their IPL 2024 match vs CSK

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) continued to struggle at Chepauk as they fell by six wickets to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season opener on Friday, March 22.

The three-time IPL finalists haven't beaten CSK at the MA Chidambaram Stadium since the inaugural edition of the league, and their latest loss was a fairly decisive one. Mustafizur Rahman's four-wicket haul turned the scales in favor of the home side, who did enough to secure a comfortable margin of victory in the chase.

It's back to the drawing board for RCB, who have plenty of things to work on as the season progresses. They will know that they can't afford to drop many points in what is expected to be a hugely competitive tournament.

Here are two mistakes and one masterstroke made by RCB in their IPL 2024 clash against CSK.

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#3 Mistake - RCB might have overdone the short-ball ploy in the chase

When Shivam Dube and Daryl Mitchell joined forces at the crease, RCB were already behind the eight ball in the second innings. Faf du Plessis decided not to feed spin to Dube, who is known to be severe on that type of bowling, and resorted to the short-ball ploy.

It was a smart move from RCB as the CSK batters struggled to keep the scoreboard moving. Mitchell was bounced out as he found long-on off the splice of his bat, leaving Chennai in even more trouble.

However, Bengaluru pushed the strategy too far and ended up being too one-dimensional. Soon after a strategic timeout, Dube started to approach the deliveries with more finesse and managed to guide a couple of boundaries on either side of the wicket.

Ravindra Jadeja was assured against the short stuff, and the RCB bowlers lost their radar towards the end of the match as well. There was a limit to the extent of implementation of the plan, and Du Plessis and Co. unfortunately crossed it.

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#2 Masterstroke - Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik picked the right time to step on the pedal

Mustafizur Rahman broke the back of the RCB batting unit with four wickets in his first two overs, following which Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik joined forces at the crease. There were no demons in the wicket, and both keeper-batters took their time to get set before accelerating at the right time.

It was only in the last five overs of the first innings that Rawat and Karthik decided to step on the pedal, by which time both were set. They knew that they had two overs of Tushar Deshpande to come and attacked the fast bowler smartly to pick him off for 25 runs in the 18th over of the innings.

Had the duo tried to attack earlier, they may have perished and left CSK with a massive net run rate after just one game. However, Rawat and Karthik played smartly and ensured that RCB didn't suffer a serious dent at the very start of the competition.

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#1 Mistake - RCB's batters picked the wrong bowler to attack in Mustafizur Rahman

Mustafizur Rahman bowled superbly well for his four wickets. He mixed up his off-cutter well and bowled varied lengths throughout his spell to keep the RCB batters guessing.

At the same time, though, three of the four scalps Mustafizur was responsible for were off attacking shots. Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis found fielders in the deep, while Cameron Green tried a low-percentage cut after exposing his stumps.

Bengaluru should've recognized that Mustafizur was CSK's premier threat with the ball and been wary of him, at least during his first two overs. He was never going to bowl more than two before the death, and there was enough merit in playing him out.