IPL 2020, Match 9 – Royal Challengers Bangalore v Mumbai Indians – RCB triumph over MI in second super over of IPL 2020
A second successive high-scoring thriller in this year’s IPL saw the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) triumph over the Mumbai Indians (MI), chasing down 8 runs off the last ball of a super over after both teams ended up with the score of 201.
The trend of chasing after winning the toss resumed after Rohit decided to do so. RCB openers, Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch got their team off to a great start, laying the foundation for the rest of the batting with a partnership of 81. Once Finch, who was the more aggressive of the two, departed, the onus was on young Padikkal to stay in the middle for as long as possible. He started to free his arms right before the slog-overs, bringing up a second IPL fifty in the process.
Although he could not bat through, departing in the 17th over, the latest episode of the de Villiers show had already begun by then. The former South African Cricketer struck a 24-ball 55, 35 of those runs coming between the 17th and the 19th over, as RCB, with the help of some fireworks from Shivam Dube as well in the last over, set the Mumbai Indians a target of 202.
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Mumbai Indians raced off to 14 without a wicket in the first over off Udana, but the flourish ended rather swiftly after Washington Sundar claimed Rohit Sharma as his maiden wicket for RCB in the powerplay. With the help of an economical spell from Sundar, RCB managed to kept MI down to 63 for the loss of 3 wickets at the halfway stage of the chase. When Hardik Pandya holed out to substitute fielder Negi at deep mid-wicket in the 12th over, it seemed like the game was done and dusted with.
Ishan Kishan had been holding the innings together all this while, before Pollard decided to unleash his wrath on leg-spinners Adam Zampa and Yuzvendra Chahal, as the duo ended up conceding 49 off the 17th and 18th over, with Pollard raising his bat having reached fifty off only 20 deliveries. The match boiled down to 19 off the last over, and Kishan brought the equation down to 5 off 2 against Udana. Unfortunately for MI, Kishan holed out to deep mid-wicket trying to clear the ropes for 99, and dejectedly walked back to the dugout. Pollard managed to take the match to a super over with a boundary to square leg off the final delivery.
Ishan Kishan took his team to the brink of victory with a breathtaking knock of 99
Saini, given to bowl the super over by RCB skipper Virat Kohli, did an excellent job of containing the duo of Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya down to 7 runs, in the process dismissing the former off the penultimate delivery. Jasprit Bumrah, then with his yorkers, tried his best to defend the target of 8 against two of the best batsmen in the game of Cricket, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. He almost succeeded in doing so, but he missed the yorker with the scores level off the last ball, and Virat Kohli completed the simple task of guiding the ball towards square leg for the winning run.
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Takeaways for RCB from today’s game
Batting line-up’s non-reliance on Virat Kohli
There have been two major chinks to RCB’s armour, one of them being the bowling at the death and the other one of which has emerged since the departure of KL Rahul and Chris Gayle. RCB’s batting has been heavily reliant on either one of Virat Kohli or AB de Villiers to fire to ensure they got to a good total or chased down a target. So much have they relied on Kohli for them to score runs that he has had to open for them in order to face more overs, something, though, he had been best suited to in the recent past. They were always going to run into an issue once Kohli’s form dipped, but thankfully for them this time, it took place when they seemed to be better equipped.
The emergence of Devdutt Padikkal in their first game of this season gave RCB the dashing, free-scoring, left-handed opener they had longed for since Chris Gayle’s departure. To have someone as experienced as Aaron Finch, the Australian ODI and T20I captain bat alongside him was always going to be beneficial. It certainly paid off today, as the opening pair recorded a stand of 81 for the first wicket, their second 50+ stand in this year’s IPL, thereby providing the perfect platform for their middle-order to get them past 200.
Dube presenting his six-hitting ability in the last over
Shivam Dube had been enlisted in RCB’s roster in the auction for the IPL last year after he had smashed veteran leg-spinner Pravin Tambe for five successive sixes in the 2018 T20 Mumbai league, a feat he repeated later in the same year in the Ranji Trophy against Baroda left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh ahead of the auction. Dube, though, did not have a memorable maiden IPL season, and it seemed like he was on his way of not having one this year either when he failed to make an impression with the bat in the first two games.
Today’s game against Mumbai Indians might just be the nitro-boost that he required, and might have given RCB the ray of hope of finally being equipped with a quality big hitter towards the end of the innings after such a long time. With de Villiers seeing the ball like a football at the other end, Dube, instead of offering the strike to the former South African Cricketer, decided to get RCB past the 200-run mark himself by tonking James Pattinson for three sixes in the last over. Unlike the two previous games, he did not slog blindly, instead, he read the deliveries coming out of Pattinson’s hand, kept his head at the right position, and slog-swept and flicked 20 runs off the final over.
Complete utilization of Washington Sundar’s bowling beneficial for RCB
Washington Sundar had been severely underutilized in the two previous games for the RCB. He was only given one over in RCB’s first match against Sunrisers Hyderabad and two in their following game against Kings XI Punjab, a game in which he didn’t bowl in the powerplay, a role that he has performed to perfection before, only conceded 13 off his two overs and was not given to bowl at the death at all, something that RCB could have considered, particularly with the last four overs costing them 74.
Umesh Yadav’s absence from the side prompted Kohli to open the bowling with his off-spinner. Sundar responded to his captain’s belief in him immediately, claiming the monumental wicket of Rohit Sharma along with conceding only two off the over. As a result, he ended up bowling 3 of his 4 overs in the powerplay itself, giving a total of only 7 runs. He finished with 1/12 in his four overs and played a major role in RCB taking command of the game within the first 10 overs of the chase, after which Ishan Kishan and Kieron Pollard launched into an onslaught of epic proportions.
Kohli communicating with his death bowler under pressure
One aspect that has been found wanting in Kohli’s captaincy, be it for India in limited-overs Cricket or the IPL, is talking to the bowler and providing him adequate moral support in the face of severe pressure. The one thing every bowler – pacer or spinner – requires in such situations is a word of assurance from their skipper, which can also help in slowing down the tempo of the game, resulting in the batsman not being able to carry on with the assault at times. Kohli, unfortunately, has kept to his fielding position on most occasions of his bowlers going all around the park repeatedly.
It seemed like the pattern was going to repeat with the Mumbai Indians running away with the game, based on an absolute blitzkrieg of a knock from Ishan Kishan (99) and some belated fireworks from Kieron Pollard. With 19 required off the last over, Kishan brought the equation down to 5 off 2 with successive sixes off Isuru Udana, when Kohli ran in from the deep, had a chat with his bowler, presumably telling him to go for the off-cutter so that Kishan tried to swat it towards the long mid-wicket boundary and hole out. Kishan did exactly that, leaving the park a distraught figure, and Udana’s gesture to his skipper after the wicket confirmed the same.