IPL 2019: A look at Shreyas Gopal’s unbelievable numbers against Virat Kohli-led RCB

Virat Kohli is a modern-era great and AB de Villiers, a.k.a Mr 360, is a master of limited-overs batting. And the two combine to form the crux of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s batting and their strength. But both have their weaknesses – a similar one – and Rajasthan Royals skipper Ajinkya Rahane just targeted the Achilles heel using the same weaponry that he had unleashed in the previous edition.

Kohli’s strike rate against googlies since IPL 2018 is 85.7 and he has been dismissed three times by such deliveries in his T20 career. On the other hand, De Villiers is dismissed by the wrong’un once every 6.50 balls. Rahane was well aware of these numbers and hence introduced Shreyas Gopal, who was the Man of the Match the last time the two teams played at the venue, early on in the innings. He had dismissed AB twice in 2018 and got the better of Kohli once.

Introduced in the seventh over, Gopal took just three deliveries to dismiss the Indian skipper with a magical googly that even left him in disbelief. It was for the second time in eight deliveries in IPL that Gopal dismissed Kohli. For Kohli, it was for the seventh time that he was dismissed by a spinner in last 10 IPL dismissals and fourth time by googly in T20 career. His average against leg-breaks now stands 56.20, which drops to as low as 18.25 against googlies.

Exactly five deliveries later, he bamboozled AB with a wondrous wrong’un that stayed low to get an inside edge on the flick before hitting the stumps. In nine deliveries, the Karnataka leg-spinner sent the two big guns back to the hut while conceding only six runs against them.

Gopal returned for his third over and got the better of Shimron Hetmyer in the very first ball to dismiss him for a single only. At the end of four overs, he finished with a spectacular figure of 3/12. Gopal targeted the RCB top-order mostly with googlies, picking three wickets in 18 deliveries while conceding 10 runs. He delivered only six leg-breaks on Tuesday where he conceded only two runs.

It wasn’t the first time that Gopal starred in an RR versus RCB game. Last season, he had finished with figures of 2/22 (away) and 4/16 (home), respectively, in the two matches.

Well, numbers reveal that Gopal is the key weaponry for Rahane when it comes to RCB. In three matches against the franchise, Gopal has picked a total of nine matches in 12 overs at an average of 5.55 and an economy rate of 4.16.

Gopal vs RCB in IPL:
2/22 (4) at M Chinnaswamy in 2018 – dismissed: Kohli, AB, Parthiv
4/16 (4) at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in 2018 – dismissed: Parthiv, Moeen, Mandeep, AB
3/12 (4) Sawai Mansingh Stadium in 2019 – dismissed: Kohli, AB, Hetmyer

“I just feel a little lucky at the moment. Everyone knows that they are world class cricketers (Kohli and AB de Villiers). They are the most destructive players in the world. As a youngster to get them out is one of my biggest days and biggest moments in my cricketing journey. Most of the time it’s just gut feel, I like to show it a lot earlier (bowling the googly). I was trying to bowl on the stumps and didn’t want to give them width. You don’t stand too much of a chance against these players, but when you do, you feel great. The first class season is important for us, doing well there and gaining confidence helps,” said Gopal at the end of Rajasthan’s innings at home.