Making good decisions, the secret to RR's bowling turnaround

It was barely a 14-ball knock by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, on Tuesday evening, that got the world to sit up and take notice of the southpaw's talent. It wasn't the first time they were doing it. But it was the first time he was announcing that he can pummell the world's best bowler - and probably the world's best cricketer - with disdain and ease with which he can take down anyone else. His brief knock took the sheen away from Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was pacing along nearly as fast, and eventually laying the foundation of his team's emphatic victory.

Ever since he has made his IPL debut, several times - irrespective of his eventual score - the limelight has firmly been stolen by the teenager. While his shots can tear apart reputations and confidence, he has not necessarily been the Royals' best player this season. For as significant as his explosiveness is to the Royals' charge, there is another dramatic shift that has taken place for them to sit pretty on top of the points table - the effectiveness of their bowling attack.

Last season, as they finished second last on the points table, it was largely courtesy of their ineffectiveness as a bowling group, which stood among the worst across all parameters. They had picked the least wickets (65), had the worst average (42.15) and the second-worst economy rate.

This season, despite holding on to their core, much seems to have changed.

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The change starts with the performance of the pacers, who have shown marked improvement across all phases.

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In all likelihood, had Sam Curran been fit, Nandre Burger probably wouldn't have found a place in the playing XII. But now that he has, he has provided the much-needed venom with the new-ball - the left-arm angle, steep bounce and swing in tight channels, which hasn't allowed the batters to break free; his dismissals include Sanju Samson, Ayush Mhatre, Jos Buttler, Suryakumar Yadav and Naman Dhir. That he has found an able and equally effective partner in Jofra Archer from the other end, at least in Guwahati, has aided his case.

The other has been the application by Sandeep Sharma and Tushar Deshpande, both of whom have been part of representational cricket for a long period with international experience, but as compared to most other sides, haven't had that kind of global exposure. At various points, especially in the death overs, they have held their nerve and delivered under pressure.

Bond highlighted Deshpande's marked improvement and said, "Both [Sandeep and Deshpande] prepare really well. Tushar had an ankle injury last year, so I've noticed an uptake in his speed. He was bowling in the 140s. Last year, he was probably mid-130s. He was managing an injury. So he's in a better place probably mentally and physically.

Those areas of improvements notwithstanding, the biggest change has come about in the middle overs, where they have struck regularly and ensured the arsenal has been limited for attack towards the end. Much of that credit goes to Ravi Bishnoi, who himself had endured his worst season in IPL. Playing for Lucknow Super Giants, he had picked only nine wickets in 11 games, and was carted around at 10.84 per over. This year, with seven wickets in three games, he already sits with the Purple Cap on.

"Obviously, we've got some bowlers with some different strengths, but [Kumar] Sangakkara talks a lot about just assessing the conditions," Bond said, a line repeated a few times already by captain Riyan Parag. "And even though we've got these plans, it's assessing the conditions first, and then we go about executing after that. You saw that in the Gujarat game at the back end when we bowled a lot of full and fast stuff. Also the way that we did it against Mumbai as well, the different plans that we had. That's been one of the strengths of the group so far, is assessing those conditions.

Shedding light into this change in the performance of the bowling unit, Bond said, "The big thing with anyone is we've talked a lot - even probably going back as far as November - about managing those pressure situations. How are we going to do it? How are we going to stay calm? How are we going to make good decisions?

"The captain plays a big part of that [change]. Understanding his bowlers, what our plans are. We know that we're not going to be perfect, we're not going to get it right all the time, we're going to mis-execute at times. But if we consistently make good decisions, then we're going to give ourselves a chance to win.

"That relationship between Riyan and the bowlers, and the conversations we're having is working effectively. The most pleasing thing from my point of view is the way we finished off that GT game. And then the way [we bowled] against Mumbai. We had a really good score on the board, but especially the first four overs against Mumbai. We're always going to make it extremely difficult for them by bowling well in the Powerplay, and all the boys did that."

He was especially effusive in praise of Parag, and said. "I've really enjoyed the way Riyan has managed the bowlers in particular. We've talked a lot about making sure we're getting through our overs quick enough to give him the time to have that communication, especially as a new captain, to get to understand the bowlers and manage those pressure situations. There's a lot of data and information out there as well. We want to make things reasonably simple, pretty simple game plans."

But Bond is well aware that the bowlers are going to come under the pump more often than not as the season progresses, and more batter friendly pitches are dished out to make a total of 200 seem like a smooth ride. "It's working well so far [for Rajasthan Royals]. We're going to be put under pressure at some point in time. Teams are going to come out hard against us. Hopefully it's not tomorrow. But if we've got all those things in place, then hopefully we can manage it. Our job is to try and keep teams to a score that a pretty good batting line-up can chase down."

In saying so, he also added a word of caution. "Look, it's always fun when you're winning, right? But there's a long way to go in the competition, and hopefully we can just play consistently like we are. Because if we do that, we're going to be tough to beat.

"It's been a great start. When you start every IPL campaign, particularly on the back of a tough one last year, it always brings a little bit of nervous energy. Not only just the fast bowling group, but the bowling group in general and the team have played really well. There's a quiet confidence about the way we're going about things. As soon as you've got more wins than losses in this competition, you can sort of relax a little bit. And even off the field, it means guys can tend to open up a little bit more. We're still spending a lot of time talking about the areas we can improve, which is as good when you're 3-0 rather than the other way around."