A fumbling middle-order has long been Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Achilles heel. Fortunes largely depended on what famous batting troikas up top like Virat Kohli – Chris Gayle – A.B. de Villiers and Kohli – Faf du Plessis – Glenn Maxwell could do.
This seemed the case in the first half of the ongoing season as well but not anymore. Rajat Patidar, batting at No.4, has exploded spectacularly as RCB has won five matches on the bounce after losing seven of its first eight.
Three of his five half-centuries have come in RCB’s purple patch and a fourth almost resulted in a victory before a loss to Kolkata Knight Riders by an agonising one-run margin.
