IPL 2024: RCB's impressive ball show restricts GT for 147 runs

Virat Kohli celebrates after he gets GT’s Shahrukh Khan run out in Bangalore on Saturday. Pic/PTI

For most of this season, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowlers have been on a hiding to nothing. They haven't been penetrative in the Powerplay, they have leaked runs by the bushel towards the back end and therefore, it was no surprise that they stacked up a six-match losing streak, winning just one of their first eight encounters.

That terrible phase with the ball coincided with Mohammed Siraj going AWOL. India's premier strike bowler alongside Jasprit Bumrah seemed jaded after the Test series against England, and his lack of penetration had a direct impact on his team's fortunes. So much so, that Siraj was even benched for the home tie against Sunrisers Hyderabad 20 days back, when RCB conceded an IPL-high 287 for three.

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Gradually, though, the 30-year-old has started to find his mojo back, and a spectacular yorker to castle the marauding Shahrukh Khan last week against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad suggested that he wasn't far off from his best.

Building on the strides he has taken in the last few outings, Siraj headlined a powerful bowling display from RCB at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday night in the return fixture against last year's finalists. After Faf du Plessis chose to chase, Siraj broke the game wide open with the scalps of Wriddhiman Saha and skipper Shubman Gill in an excellent first spell of 2-0-9-2. GT struggled to recover from those crippling blows despite a counter-attacking stand of 61 between Shahrukh and David Miller and were bowled out for 147 with three deliveries going unutilised. Their last three wickets fell without the addition of a run in as many balls - a run out meant there was no hat-trick for Vyshak Vijay Kumar - in a true reflection of GT's batting travails of not just this night but this season as a whole.

Siraj produced an excellent awayswinger to account for Saha in the first over and defeated Gill again with swing in his next over to elicit a catch to deep third-man. And when the consistent Sai Sudharsan fell to Cameron Green in trying to up the ante, the visitors were in a deep hole at 19 for three inside the Powerplay.

Led by the towering Green, RCB's bowlers exploited the spongy bounce on a dry but grass-infested strip.