There has been a striking similarity to the last three matches in the Indian Premier League. The teams losing the toss were asked to bat first. The captains said they would have rather bowled first too. And then saw their teams post sub-par totals that were, at least in two out of the three cases, chased down easily.

The third instance was the match between Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Mohali on Monday. R Ashwin’s men looked like they had the run chase under control for most part before needing 11 runs off the final over, eventually crossing the line with one ball to spare.

But the thrilling finish in Mohali notwithstanding, there emerged a pattern in these three matches – the teams batting first paid the price for not utilising their full resources to put up a winning total.

Kings XI neutralise Warner’s threat

KXIP came into this match against SRH with the worst powerplay bowling record in the 2019 edition of IPL, conceding at 9.40 runs-per-over. And against the best top order in the tournament, perhaps, they did tremendously well to restrict the run-scoring (27/1). The early wicket of Jonny Bairstow played a big part in it, as he was dismissed in the second over by Mujeeb ur Rehman. It was crucial for KXIP because SRH could not quite go all guns blazing as they have done in the earlier matches, given the fragility of their middle order. One that was exposed by Alzarri Joseph and Mumbai Indians in their own backyard.

And thus, on a pitch that did have assistance for bowlers, Warner decided to buckle down. If you had told someone that at the end of the 10-over mark on the Mohali pitch (where the average first innings score in the last five matches has been 180), that there would have been only two boundaries hit, it would not have been believable. Yet, that is precisely what happened as Ankit Rajpoot, Mohammed Shami and Co restricted Warner and Vijay Shankar to very little wiggle room.

The acceleration did come in the second half of the innings, as SRH went from 50/1 after 10 overs to 150/4 after 20 – scoring 100 runs in the last 10 overs, with Warner speeding up towards the end of his innings and Deepak Hooda (14 off 3 balls) providing the final flourish.

And yet, after the match, captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar was left ruing the fact that his side were “15-20 runs short.”

Warner does a Kohli

This has become a jargon repeated far too often by sides batting first – and in most cases it has been because the acceleration either came too late or did not come at all.

For the third match in a row, we were seeing the team batting first opt for a conservative approach. While Rajasthan Royals’ efforts against Kolkata Knight Riders was not for the lack of trying, they ended up registering the lowest score for a side batting first while losing three or fewer wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Jos Buttler tried everything he can, but could not just connect, while Steve Smith’s late acceleration coincided with a 14-ball 7 for Ben Stokes, all but neutralising RR’s final charge.

But RCB and SRH’s approaches on Sunday and Monday bore a deeper resemblance. Both their premier batsmen decided to rein themselves in after losing the services of their other main batting resource early in the match. While Warner’s slow-down came after Bairstow’s wicket, Kohli decided to buckle down after AB de Villiers was dismissed against Delhi Capitals. In both cases the idea was the same: to bat till deep because the rest of the line-up needed a guiding hand.

Now, two instances don’t make for a trend, but it has been happening often enough this season where teams that tend to play conservatively while batting, worried about the lack of depth or an imminent collapse, end up with a below par final score.

This is not to say Kohli or Warner’s approaches were flawed. While Kohli’s case was even more strange because he faced just 33 deliveries before being dismissed in the 18th over, Warner at least got the final push to his innings that the Indian captain could not. But the end result was not very different. Their teams were left with scores not easy to defend in conditions that became increasingly batsmen friendly.

The flip side of the coin is that had Warner and Kohli tired upping the ante early on and perished, their teams might not have had the chance to even stay in the game for long. All said and done, SRH took the game against KXIP to the very last over and only fell just short of defending 150 on a pitch where batting should have been much easier with the amount of dew on the ground in the second innings.

But, given the lack of trust or form in the rest of the batting order, two of the most dangerous batsmen the game has seen had to play uncharacteristic knocks in hopes that they might just have done enough to help their bowlers.

There is no immediate solution to this. For SRH, their management must be hoping Kane Williamson can return to that batting order soon as well as Warner and Bairstow go back to their marauding ways of the first three games of the season. For RCB, the problem is manifold as the batting lineup, starting with de Villiers, needs to deliver consistency and hope the bowlers become... not ordinary, for the lack of a milder word, overnight.

In Bengaluru and Mohali, though, we saw the consequences of one batsman taking all the burden on his shoulder and not reaping the rewards for it.