Phil Salt versus Jofra Archer was always going to be a battle to watch out for, as Royal Challengers Bengaluru faced off against Rajasthan Royals, in an Indian Premier League game, in Jaipur. Not just because both play for the same country. But it was also a contest between an aggressive opener and a fast bowler who can consistently clock speeds in excess of 145 kmph. The subset to it was the winner of the duel would help his side gain clear ascendancy. In other words, on a deck that was on the slower side, Powerplay overs were always going to be extremely important.
The contest certainly matched its billing. With an in-swinger that moved considerably off the seam, Archer had Salt in all kinds of trouble off his first ball. However, lady luck smiled on Salt as he somehow inside-edged it to the fine leg fence. He then proceeded to play inside the line in an attempt to play the pull stroke. The short ball did get big on Salt, but the top-edge went all the way.
Even though Archer would consider himself unlucky, his opponent had made his intentions clear. Salt would look to shuffle across towards the off-stump in order to negate the threat of the inward movement from Archer. In Archer’s next over, the strategy paid rich dividends as the opener collected a four and a six and RCB were already 30 for no loss after three overs.
Salt didn’t stop there as he smacked Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Kumar Kartikeya and Sandeep Sharma for a flurry of fours and sixes. By the time he was dismissed for a 33-ball 65, the required run-rate was just over seven an over. It was just the kind of knock that allowed Virat Kohli to pace his innings and play his own game.
Even if you look at Salt’s three 30-plus scores in the competition so far — against KKR, CSK and DC — all of them laid the foundation stone for RCB to either chase down the target or set a winning total. In RCB’s previous game, he was unfortunately run out. Perhaps, someone up there compensated for that unfortunate dismissal, with RR dropping a few catches. Salt duly took advantage and played a game-breaking innings.