IPL 2017 | RCB do the double over DD to end season on a high

05/14/2017

Royal Challengers Bangalore gave their fans something to cheer about with a dominant 10-run victory over Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Virat Kohli finished the season with another half century before Avesh Khan marked his IPL debut spell with a wicket and just 10 runs to secure the win for RCB.

Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 161/6 (Virat Kohli 58, Chris Gayle 48; Pat Cummins 2/21, Shahbaz Nadeem 1/12) beat Delhi Daredevils 151/10 (Rishabh Pant 45, Shreyash Iyer 32; Pawan Negi 3/10, Harshal Patel 2/43) by 10 runs.

Virat Kohli won the toss for RCB and chose to bat as his side looked to go out and express themselves after playing just three foreigners in the form of Chris Gayle, Shane Watson, and Travis Head. The RCB captain made as many as five changes to give the squad’s players a game. Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan named an unchanged XI from the team that beat the Supergiant in their last game.

Gayle finally comes good

After a disappointing season, Chris Gayle looked intent on finishing on a high as he started off with two boundaries in the very first over and followed that up with a six in the second to take RCB to 17 off the first two overs. However, his partner Vishnu Vinod was finding it difficult against Zaheer Khan and Mohammed Shami and the introduction of Pat Cummins was the last nail in his coffin as his struggles of 3 from 9 balls, were brought to an abrupt end in the fifth over. Kohli and Gayle, rather than attack during the powerplay, opted to build a partnership and guided the team to 37/1 in the first six overs. Even the introduction of spin, once the field had been spread out, did not help RCB’s cause as they could only manage 29 runs in the next four overs to guide their team to a modest 66/1 at the midway point of the innings.

Negi takes RCB past 160

Seeing the lack of runs, the duo picked Amit Mishra as the source of quick runs and managed to take 19 off the over with Gayle getting a six while Kohli bettered that with a boundary as well. However, keeping in trend with RCB’s season, Bangalore lost three wickets in the next four overs with Gayle, Head, and Kohli all back in the hut with the scoreboard reflecting 118/4 with just under three overs to go. Jadhav looked to accelerate with a six off Zaheer Khan but his running between the wickets let him down again as he failed to steal a quick single. Finally, a 5-ball 13 from Pawan Negi that included three consecutive boundaries in the last over ensured RCB went past the 160-run mark and handed Delhi a target with a required run rate over 8-runs an over.

Pant-Iyer stabilize DD innings after Avesh’s dream spell

Making his IPL debut, Avesh Khan showed RCB what they had been missing this season, setting up Sanju Samson with a quick short delivery before following it up with another one to send the Kerala batsman packing. Delhi were finding it difficult to get the 20-year-old away as he conceded a mere six runs in his first two overs. Playing his first game of the season, Harshal Patel, however, suffered a different fate leaking 15 runs off his first over. Even though Karun Nair was dismissed in the last power play over, the hosts had managed to accumulate 42 runs to keep the required rate in check. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer, with the field restrictions lifted, decided to just rotate the strike and build a sustainable partnership before taking 25 off the ninth and tenth over to put Delhi in the driving seat with the scoreboard at 76/2.

RCB do the double over DD to salvage some pride

Kolhi decided to bring Harshal Patel back into the attack and it proved to be a major turning point in the game. Not only did the 26-year-old concede just 3 runs he also sent Iyer and Marlon Samuels packing on back-to-back deliveries. Pant was keeping Delhi in the hunt by rotating the strike well and putting the bad balls away for boundaries. Head then handed Delhi yet another double blow by sending both Corey Anderson and Pat Cummins back to the hut. Pant, too, was dismissed in the 17th leaving his side needing 45 off 20 balls. Shami and Mishra stitched together a quickfire 16 run partnership to keep Delhi in the hunt. Shami then took the injured Avesh Khan for 14 runs in the penultimate over to leave his side needing just 13 runs in the last over. But just as he had done in the first match between the two, Negi bowled a brilliant last over to secure a 10-run win for his team.

Tamim Iqbal or Shikhar Dhawan ? Who will score more runs ?

In this CT so far, Tamim - 223 runs at an avg of 74.33 & Dhawan - 270 runs at an avg of 90.33.

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