The season opener goes right down the wire as RCB emerge victorious in a last-ball thriller.
After winning the toss and opting to chase, Bangalore handed debuts to Jamieson, Patidar and Maxwell. While the Mumbai Indians played Lynn and the newbie, Marco Jansen.
As Rohit was dismissed in the fourth over after his opening partner, Lynn, ran him out, his involvement in the mode of dismissal accounted for the most by a player – 36 times ( 11 times ran himself out/ 25 times ran his partners out)
Most of the power play sailed smoothly for RCB until the sixth over where 11 runs were scored in Chahal’s introductory over. That momentum was carried from the overs 7-15 by the MI batsmen who moved quickly by 97 runs in that phase to set up a solid foundation for a massive final few overs. Lynn ( 49 off 35), Surya ( 31 off 23) and Ishan ( 28 off 19) took charge of the middle-overs.
Finally, the death overs which have been RCB’s nemesis since a long time were conquered through major contributions coming from Harshal Patel, who ended up with a fifer and Jamieson. The former relied on the good old yorker while the latter mixed his variations on a slow Chennai track that wasn’t easy to play attacking cricket on. Scoring a mere 31/6 in the final four overs, MI ended their innings at 159/9.
Surprisingly, Sundar who was by far the best bowler in the power play last season, was never given the ball during that phase and only bowled an over in the entire game.
As the game moved on to RCB’s response with the bat, a familiar bowling pair in Bumrah and Boult was dealt by Virat and a makeshift opener in Sundar for RCB. ( 35 for 0 on four overs.)
After a few quick wickets that fell, Maxwell batting at number four gave a glimpse in the innings that he played where he smashed a delivery out of the ground, reverse swept the spinners and pulled out the inside out stroke quite a few times.
As Virat and a few others who’s wickets fell and at 121-5, it was not going to be an easy path for Bangalore to chase the target by overcoming the death overs of Boult and Bumrah.
But AB DE Villiers, the 360° of world cricket turned up the heat and decided to tear apart Bumrah’s 16th over through which he fetched 15 runs, he began his onslaught that rallied his side seven runs away from victory by the time the last over was left.
Needing 3 off 3 deliveries, AB who decided to run for two in an effort to retain the strike was dismissed by a throw from Krunal Pandya.
After the new man Siraj ran off strike with his side needing a run off the final delivery, the player of the day Harshal Patel did no wrong and scampered for the winning run as he flicked the ball to fine-leg who was inside the ring.
Kanishk Sharma 