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Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) would be delighted with their performance in the first half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as they won five out of their seven matches and secured the third spot in the table.
The popular cricket tournament came to a halt earlier this year due to Covid-19 cases among some players and coaching staff within the bio-bubble.
The second leg is set to resume in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday and RCB would like to continue their top form for the rest of the tournament.
But the Virat Kohli-led side know that the job won't be easy given that the other teams, especially Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, are strong and will go all out to win the cup.
RCB won most of their matches in the first half owing to the superb batting form of Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers.
When they failed, the team also lost.
To beef up the batting, they have now included 25-year-old Tim David, the first player from Singapore to earn an IPL contract.
Tim, who is an Australian but can play for Singapore because he was born here, has been a consistent performer in various T20 leagues around the world during the course of this year.
He became famous after some stellar performances in the last Big Bash League season in Australia and has followed that up with equally good outings in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Tim has power and can score at a rapid pace in the lower middle-order.
He is also dependable as he has an average of 30+ in each of the three leagues which were played in different conditions.
On several occasions, he has also dug his team out of trouble and got them to respectable scores. He has appeared equally good against both pace and spin bowling.
His numbers and performances show how important an asset he could become for RCB in this second leg.
He provides them with a much-needed cushion behind de Villiers and Maxwell.
The duo can play even more freely and it will lessen the burden on them a lot if they know that a capable batsman like Tim is slated to follow them at No. 6. After all, 574 of Tim's 737 runs in the BBL, CPL and PSL combined have come at this position, at an outstanding average of 41 and a terrific strike-rate of 164.
"It's nice to be representing a lot of the associate players and showing that a player not from Test playing nations can do really good things at a higher level of cricket," said Tim.
Nine months, eight tournaments, six geographical locations - that's what 2021 has been like for the man proudly carrying his tiny associate nation's flag to franchise cricket around the world.
He may just be the busiest cricketer in the world right now.
This has been a bizarre and breathless year for the youngster, who learnt most of his cricket in Perth, but could only go as far as making the Western Australia second team.
Tim decided to play for Singapore instead, taking after his Australian father Rod who played for Singapore in the 1980s.
He has since slowly begun to build a reputation as a big hitter.
His career soared after a smashing season for Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League in December and January.
Immediately he got called up to the PSL as a last-minute replacement.
From there he went to the Netherlands to play club cricket, got called up by Surrey in England to play two T20 games as an injury replacement and ended up being picked for one-dayers as well. Then he got picked at the last minute for The Hundred, where he played in the final and won.
"A day after the final, I took a plane to play in the CPL," Tim said.
"The whole of last year I was sitting at home doing nothing. Then, it all snowballed a bit. The Covid this year opened up a lot of opportunities. It's been a long time on the road, but I am grateful."
Indo-Asian News Service
"It's nice to be representing a lot of the associate players and showing that a player not from Test playing nations can do really good things at a higher level of cricket."
- Tim David (left)
