IPL 2021: "I had thought RCB would get stuck in Chennai" - Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra has acknowledged that he had thought the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) would come unstuck on the slow surfaces in Chennai.

RCB emerged victorious in five of the seven matches they played before IPL 2021 was suspended. This included wins in all three of their encounters at Chepauk at the start of the tournament.

While reviewing RCB's performance in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra admitted he believed the franchise would have a tough time in Chennai, considering their death bowling issues and reliance on overseas batsmen.

"The concern for Virat Kohli has been that he does not have good bowlers for the death, this time that task happened very well. Let's be honest, I had thought RCB would get stuck in Chennai as their bowling will not work and there are so many overseas players in the batting," said Chopra.

The cricketer-turned-commentator spoke in glowing terms about the improvements seen in RCB's death bowling over the last couple of IPL seasons.

"The big change that has been seen happening - in 2019 they were getting hit a lot in the death overs, in 2020 that graph started going lower and in 2021 it went further down. That means while you were conceding 12-13 runs per over till 2019, now you have gone under 10, that too when Harshal Patel bowled two very expensive overs. That means you are doing a lot of things right," observed Chopra.

Hatrick Victory For RCB !!Expecially Top Class Death Bowling From Siraj & Harshal. Congrats Guys❤️#Playbold #RCBvKKR pic.twitter.com/70ZtRp43uk

— RCB Trends™ (@TrendRCB) April 18, 2021

Apart from the hammering received by Harshal Patel at the hands of Ravindra Jadeja and the KL Rahul-Harpreet Brar pair, the RCB bowlers held their own in the death overs more often than not.

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Aakash Chopra on RCB's star performers with the ball

Harshal Patel and Mohammed Siraj formed an excellent seam-bowling pair for RCB [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra singled out Harshal Patel as the most significant contributor in RCB's death bowling turnaround.

"The single most reason for the change was Harshal Patel. He took the wickets and had the Purple Cap on his head. When he took five wickets in the first match against Mumbai, the change started to happen, they got the belief that they can do it," said Chopra.

The 43-year-old also lauded Mohammed Siraj and Shahbaz Ahmed for their match-winning contributions with the ball.

"How well Mohammed Siraj is bowling. He bowled one over to Andre Russell, continuous wide yorkers, he did not bowl a single ball that could be hit for a six. Shahbaz Ahmed came in the middle, he bowled an odd over where he took a couple of wickets. The performances were coming together quite nicely in the bowling department," concluded Chopra.

Lowest runs scored off a bowler in the 19th over in IPL:-[all 6 balls faced] 1 run: Russell vs Siraj (Today)3 runs: Stokes vs Krishna (2019)3 runs: Lomror vs Mohit (2018)5 runs: Hodge vs Perera (2013)#RCBvKKR

— ComeOn Cricket 🏏🇮🇳 (@ComeOnCricket) April 18, 2021

Harshal Patel is the current Purple Cap holder in IPL 2021, with 17 scalps to his credit. Ahmed and Siraj also struck crucial blows for RCB and conceded just 6.40 and 7.34 runs per over respectively.