Despite breaking through strongholds in Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, and Jaipur, Royal Challengers Bengaluru has had an odd start to the 2025 Indian Premier League season. At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, they have now lost three straight games, all coming after batting first, to the Punjab Kings.
Despite having a strong lineup of fast bowling hitters, they have lost two of their three home games against opposition seamers: Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna in the first game and Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen in the second.
Since Andy Flower took over before the previous season, seamers hitting the deck have had significant purchase from the wicket, and Chinnaswamy is far from the batting haven of the 2010s. According to the logs, the majority of the 23 wickets that fell to pace in these three games were to cross-batted strokes, with all but one coming off deliveries that were good length or shorter.
When it comes to pace hitting, Liam Livingstone is the fastest batter in IPL history to score against pace, scoring 191 from 360 balls of pace. Among those who have amassed more than 500 runs since his IPL debut in 2019, he is first on the charts with 63% of the runs against pace on the on-side. Livingstone has scored 82% of his runs on the leg side in the region between square leg and mid-on, which is his primary hitting arch against pace.
Livingstone vs pace & spin in IPL
| Period | Bowl Type | Inns | Runs | Balls | SR | Dis | Ave | Bnd% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPL 2019-24 | Pace | 35 | 658 | 329 | 200.00 | 19 | 34.63 | 31.61 |
| IPL 2019-24 | Spin | 33 | 281 | 249 | 112.85 | 13 | 21.61 | 11.24 |
| IPL 2025 | Pace | 6 | 31 | 31 | 100.00 | 4 | 7.75 | 16.12 |
| IPL 2025 | Spin | 3 | 56 | 37 | 151.35 | 1 | 56.00 | 16.21 |
Livingstone wagon wheel vs pace in IPL
| Zone | Percentage runs |
|---|---|
| Long leg | 11.8% |
| Square leg | 12.0% |
| Mid-wicket | 23.0% |
| Mid on | 18.1% |
| Mid off | 11.4% |
| Extra cover | 12.1% |
| Backward point | 5.5% |
| Third man | 6.1% |
With just 87 runs in six appearances, 54 of which came in an innings when he was handed a life early on, he has not had a strong start to the 2025 Indian Premier League. Fascinatingly, he scored 31 runs at a run-a-ball against them despite being dismissed to pace four times. In each of these four dismissals, he was caught in the quarter between the wicketkeeper and cover point while attempting a cross-bat shot that included a cut, a scoop, and two hacks. The balls were outside off-stump.
In contrast to four on the straighter lines, 19 of his 23 dismissals against pace during his IPL career—including the 2025 season—have been against balls in the channel outside stump.
He has performed effectively against balls pitched up, even against broader lines, averaging 85 and hitting at 218 to balls longer than excellent length, while the average falls to 18.41 (SR 183) at balls less than good length. With 23 of the 31 balls to Livingstone bowled in the channel outside off and 19 of those being excellent length or shorter, the bowlers have effectively followed this exact strategy this season, leading to four dismissals.
Livingstone vs balls outside off stump channel from pace
| Length | Runs | Balls | SR | Dis | Ave | Dot% | Bnd% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full | 170 | 78 | 217.94 | 2 | 85.00 | 22.6 | 38.46 |
| Good length & shorter | 313 | 171 | 183.04 | 17 | 18.41 | 35.3 | 28.07 |
Since Livingstone has four of their next six games at home, RCB hitters in general and Livingstone in particular must figure out a practical way to score runs regularly here given the difficult hurdles presented by the Chinnaswamy surface.
