Haunting a different hour: How RCB bite at both ends

Not long ago, death bowling was RCB's open wound. In 2018 and 2019, they bled 11.65 and 11.10 runs per over in the final five overs, a haemorrhage that opponents circled on their calendars. Under Mike Hesson during the exile to the Middle East in the Covid years, the death bowling conversation shifted somewhat: if you could strike through the middle on the slow surfaces at the UAE, you could survive the carnage at the end.

Then came 2025, and RCB finally lifted the trophy. That title was built on incredible batting depth, yes, but its spine was Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar suffocating the Powerplay. RCB's pacers claimed the most wickets in those first six overs (25) with the best strike rate (20.3), the lowest economy (8.27), and the highest dot-ball percentage (43.7%) in the league.

If Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar were dawnbreakers last year, they are haunting a different hour in 2026.

The told a great story. On what Virat Kohli called the best batting surface of the season in Bengaluru, the Titans had raced off to 170 for 2 after 16 overs riding on an excellent Sai Sudharsan hundred. For reference, RCB themselves had been 172 for 3 at the same stage against Chennai Super Kings earlier this month on the same pitch.

Wrist-spinner Suyash Sharma was handed the 17th over and squeezed out just four runs, keeping the till shut and rekindling memories of his nerveless over to MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja last year. That was the perfect handover, one this RCB side has been executing very well.

Bhuvneshwar opened the 18th with two yorkers and a length ball that could all be bunted for just singles. The fourth was another near-yorker, but with the field set straight with third man and fine-leg up, Joss Buttler was forced to look for something different. He reached for the reverse scoop, but found Hazlewood at the end of it.

Hazlewood then took the 19th, mercifully without Buttler at the crease, a batter who has historically had his number in T20s, and gave away just eight, two of which were gifted by fumbles in the field. Over three consecutive death overs, the Titans, who had only lost three wickets, managed zero boundaries and a grand total of 17 runs. Long before Kohli and the excellent Devdutt Padikkal iced the chase, the game was clinched here.

Krunal Pandya eventually bled 18 off the final over, but he was pressed into service only because Rasikh Dar had limped off with a calf injury. And still, the damage was long done. GT finished at 205. Compare that to the CSK game from an identical point, where RCB themselves plundered 78 in the final four overs to reach 250, GT managed just 35.

One might argue this was a happy accident - clinical bowling against a top-heavy GT side that, it turns out, is the slowest scoring team in the death this season, crawling at a run rate of just 8.53. But rewind a week to the defeat against Delhi Capitals at this very ground, and the evidence only thickens.

Delhi needed 45 off 30 last Saturday. By modern T20 standards, RCB were already beaten in almost every sense, except officially on the scoreboard. Rajat Patidar held back two Bhuvneshwar overs, even resisting the temptation to give him a third in the Powerplay despite him already having nipped out three Capitals wickets. He was being saved for that moment.

In an earlier this month, Hazlewood spoke about working on getting even better at T20 death bowling, even singling out his bowling partner Bhuvneshwar for his mastery of the yorker - and what followed that evening was almost like a demonstration of his description.

Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood nailed yorker after yorker, turning the crease into a trench. The only boundary in the spell came from a surprise bouncer - a tactical variation to break the rhythm of the full ball - and even that, as Director of Cricket Mo Bobat noted, required an extraordinary pull shot from Tristan Stubbs, reaching for a ball well above his right shoulder. Dar then bowled the 19th, landing five yorkers of his own, leaving 15 to defend off the last. It turned out to be a talking point, even in defeat.

The numbers seal the argument. RCB have taken the most wickets in the death this season - 17 - and their boundary concession rate of 18.97% is bettered only by Delhi's 17.44% in this phase. Bhuvneshwar is going at just eight an over in this phase. Hazlewood is at 9.25, marginally more expensive, but no less dangerous. And Dar, before his injury tonight, had conceded at a miserly 7.82 from 23 balls.

They've bowled the most yorkers in the league this season - 25 as per Cricviz - and have conceded exactly a run a ball with them. Even their full deliveries more broadly are going at 8.91, comfortably under the league's death-overs scoring average of 10.15.

This is a team that once couldn't find the bowling personnel to defend a total at this ground. They've now become one of the hardest sides in the competition to put away for good, even when opponents get such a head start. In a long T20 season, the Powerplay and the death will keep offering different tests and good days will have a way of being followed by difficult ones. But right now, RCB have fangs, and they bite at both ends.