RCB survives in Deja Vu Night!

Winner of the toss chooses to bowl. Batting team has a solid opening partnership. They dominate the bowling with a late flourish. Chasing team gets off to a disastrous start, regretting their decision to bowl first. Match gets boring at around 10:30 PM and we pray to god for an early finish so we can go to sleep. How often has this happened in this year’s IPL?

This was the same routine today’s match followed, albeit a small twist in the last 5 overs. Let us have a look at 5 defining points of the game:

1) RCB makes changes to improve balance

It was astounding to see Moeen Ali, Adam Zampa and Chris Morris rot in the bench while Josh Philippe was being selected just for his wicket-keeping skills. This finally changed when Zampa was brought in for an off-colour Steyn (ironical cause we want our stains to be off colour) and Philippe was replaced by Isuru Udana. Umesh Yadav too had to pay the price for his run leakage.

2) Textbook batting by RCB

Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal played ideally suiting UAE wickets. Start early, Go Slowly, Reach Safely is not just a road safety mantra but also the technique to crack batting in UAE. Once the foundation was established, AB de Villiers and Shivam Dube provided the pyrotechnics as RCB posted a mammoth 201

3) MI derailed early in the chase

Shoutout to the forgotten man Washington Sundar for his amazing 1-12 in 4 overs in a match where the average run rate was 10 per over. Rohit fell cheaply and Suryakumar followed him back to the pavilion and MI was tottering at 78-4 in the 12th over when Hardik Pandya got out

4) Kishan and Pollard <insert any verb synonymous to demolishing> RCB

90 needed off the last 5 overs. Gettable? The answer is “Yes” if the bowling team is RCB. Kishan skilfully navigated the difficult phase of batting and later went berserk. He had the big man with him for company, who did a Tewatia today, after a slow start. The pair scored a flurry of sixes to keep MI’s head above the water.

5) Cricket, you cruel monster

5 runs needed off 2 balls. Kishan on 99, mistimed a slower one from Isuru Udana and was out. Pollard duly dispatched the next ball for a boundary to take the game into a super over. The super over didn’t feature the hero Kishan and MI could only muster 7 runs. It wasn’t enough for even the great Bumrah to defend. He did take it right to the end, with 1 required off 1 ball but in the end, it was too little too late for MI.

Hats off to Padikkal, ABD, Kishan and Pollard. You will hear about them all over social media. But what about Washington Sundar’s invaluable 1-12 in 4 overs and Navdeep Saini’s spectacular penultimate over and super over? Let us know your support for them and all other forgotten heroes by liking and sharing this article.

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About the Author

The post is written by Vignesh. Vignesh is a graduate from IIM Visakhapatnam who loves to watch Football and Cricket. He is a huge fan of CSK, Chelsea FC and Chennaiyin FC. He follows Tennis and Kabaddi as well and is an ardent supporter of Roger Federer