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Within a span of a few hours, the Royal Challengers Bangalore went from a team on the verge of taking the top spot in the Indian Premier League 2022 standings to hitting a record low total after being bowled out for 68 by the Sunrisers Hyderabad resulting in one of the biggest lop-sided encounters of the season ending in the utter humiliation of a nine wicket loss.
A quick glance at the teams featuring in the Lowest Totals in the IPL reveals that RCB features the most number of times (four) in the top ten lowest totals ever -- and their latest addition of 68 in Saturday's game comes in at sixth place overall.
RCB features one of the strongest and deepest batting line-ups in the league this season, yet wickets kept falling in this game like dominos.
Eventually, it all points back to the epicentre of this batting disaster -- Sunrisers's Marco Jansen's devastating first over that rocked RCB to the core and dealt a blow which they failed to recover from for the rest of the game.
At 6' 8", Jansen is, quite literally, head and shoulders above the rest. That the metaphor applies as well is something that RCB would learn, much to their horror, within the space of a few deliveries.
At the end of the first over, Bangalore were pacing along at 5-0 when Jansen was introduced into the attack.
He started off with a length delivery turning in-wards which was defended well by RCB Captain Faf du Plessis.
The second delivery, fuller and straighter, pitched in a good length area and before du Plessis had time to react, his off-stump had been knocked over and he had been dismissed for 5.
The third ball was a near replica of the previous delivery and this time it was Virat Kohli, the new man at the crease, who ended up edging the ball to second slip Aiden Markram for a simple catch for to be dismissed for a golden duck for the second time in as many matches.
And in a matter of three deliveries, RCB had been reduced to 5/2.
Glenn Maxwell was the new man in and promptly defended the fourth ball, denying Jansen his hat-trick.
Onto the final ball of the over and Jansen struck yet again. This time it was Anuj Rawat who edged an out-swinging yorker towards the slips and Markram was at hand to make the catch. By the end of the second over, RCB had slumped to 8-3.
Jansen -- who turns 22 on Sunday next, May 1 -- had wiped out du Plessis, Kohli and Rawat -- three key batters in the RCB top order -- and in the process, helped facilitate an epic batting collapse that would make it in the record books -- for all the wrong reasons.
