डेटा शॉर्ट्स: सनराइज़र्स के शीर्ष स्पिनरों ने आरसीबी की स्पिन वेब को ध्वस्त किया

Sunrisers' ace spin hitters dismantle RCB's spin web

RCB have had a successful season, sitting comfortably in the points table. While Virat Kohli and Josh Hazlewood lead the runs and wickets charts respectively, their spin attack has been crucial in winning key phases of play.

Coming into Friday's game, only SRH's spin attack (11 wickets) had taken fewer wickets than RCB's 20, but their economy rate of 8.40 was the fourth best in the competition.

RCB's spin duo of Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma have been instrumental in their success. Krunal has taken 14 wickets, second only to Sai Kishore among finger spinners. Suyash's economy rate of 8.26 is bettered only by Kuldeep (6.85), Varun (7.00), and Digvesh Rathi (8.19) among wrist spinners in IPL 2025.

RCB spinners in away games

In most away games, RCB spinners have outperformed their opponents in conditions not typically conducive to spin. Their success stems from higher air speeds, flatter trajectories, and denying batters room to free their hands.

Against SRH in Lucknow, RCB faced a challenge. SRH were 71/2 at the end of the Powerplay on a pitch that offered little grip.

They were up against Heinrich Klaasen and Ishan Kishan, both good players of spin. Klaasen, who likes to hang back to spinners, capitalized on a misdirected delivery from Suyash, hitting a four. Suyash overcompensated the next ball, conceding a six.

Krunal started from the other end, conceding just five singles off his first over.

SRH batters vs RCB spinners, Lucknow (Game #65)

Klaasen hit a four off a freebie down the leg side before mistiming a googly to long-on. Aniket Verma came in and, as he often does against spin, took down Suyash for 19 runs in his third over, smashing three boundaries. He hit his fourth boundary – a third maximum – off Krunal's next ball, playing a handy cameo of nine-ball 26.

Kishan, looking for runs after a century in the first game, was more watchful, waiting for the right opportunity. He targeted Krunal, scoring 26 runs off 14 balls.

In total, SRH batters scored 84 runs off seven overs from Krunal and Suyash at 11.85/over – the worst RCB spinners have conceded in a game all season. As a result, RCB were left to chase 232, a significantly higher target than their previous four successful chases.