Bangalore hold nerves to beat Dehli in super over
BANGALORE: Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Delhi Daredevils in the Super Over to win their Indian Premier League match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The Daredevils have thus slipped to their fifth...
April 16, 2013
AB de Villiers hit two sixes off the last two balls of the Super Over, after the first four had yielded just three runs, to set Delhi Daredevils 16 runs to win the Super Over and thus the match. Delhi expectedly opened with David Warner and Ben Rohrer. The Australian took strike to Ravi Rampaul and tried to smash a short and wide delivery past point, only for the ball to go straight to Chris Gayle.
Surprisingly, it wasn't Virender Sehwag who came to join Ben Rohrer in the middle, but the pinch-hitter Irfan Pathan. The Baroda all-rounder justified the selection by carting Rampaul for a four and six to deep mid-wicket to make it six to win off two balls. The penultimate delivery delivery was hit straight to square-leg for a single as Rohrer took strike to face the last ball, with five to get. Rampaul bowled the Australian to send the M Chinnaswamy Stadium into delirium.
Earlier, Delhi Daredevils posted a decent total of 152 for five against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League (IPL) game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
In the previous four games that they played — and lost — Delhi Daredevils’ opening partnerships read 0, 39, 0 and 0. The pressure was on their batsmen, especially the openers. While David Warner had had good games against Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals, scoring 61 and 77 respectively, Virender Sehwag could get just 12 runs to his name in his only outing against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Ravi Rampaul heaped more pressure on the duo as his first over went for a maiden — almost a crime in this format. Sehwag then got things started in the second over of the innings bowled by the villain of RCB’s last game, RP Singh. Sehwag played one of his trademark flick off the legs to the fine leg fence as RP drifted down the leg.
Warner then took over, first punishing the bowler’s width through the covers for four. RP doesn’t learn and wants to be spanked more; the left-armer offers more width and this time, Warner spanks it with much power between cover and point for another boundary.
Sehwag got a couple more glorious boundaries through, including a deft slice past first slip to the third man boundary. Delhi raced along to 42 for no loss in five overs and were looking set for a big total.
It took R Vinay Kumar's Velcro hands to break the opening partnership as Warner powerfully smacked the bowler's delivery right back towards him. On any other day, the ball would have gone whizzing past the bowler's hands, but it was to be Warner's unlucky day as the ball stuck into Kumar's outstretched hands.
Delhi were to be rocked once more in quick succession as Sehwag played a loose flick straight to Virat Kohli at mid-wicket. And just like that, the opening pair were gone for 43 runs.
Manpreet Juneja added 30 runs with skipper Mahela Jayawardene before holing out to Vinay Kumar, whose hands were probably fitted with a magnet, at long on. Ben Rohrer scored a run-a-ball 14 before giving Jaydev Unadkat his second wicket. Jayawardene, meanwhile, was playing a watchful innings, clearly wanting to preserve his wicket.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Kedar Jadhav, who was Delhi's only shining light in their loss to Hyderabad, then walked out and played his usual aggressive innings. The duo strolled along until the 18th over keeping the run-rate around seven, before something really unusual happened.
On the last ball of the 18th over, Jayawardene fell in probably the most bizarre fashion ever witnessed on a cricket field. Jadhav played a straight drive that hit bowler Vinay Kumar’s boots in his follow through and deflected onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end, with the Daredevils captain backing up too far. Delhi were now 122 for four.
Irfan Pathan joined Jadhav for the last two overs and the duo added 30 runs to Delhi's total and give their bowlers a defendable total.
Royal Challengers Bangalore stumbled from 129 for one in 15.5 overs to 152 for seven in 20 overs to tie the match against Delhi Daredevils and send the match into a Super Over finish.
Chris Gayle hit Morne Morkel for two massive sixes to get the Royal Challengers off to a flier, but the South African had the last laugh. In the fourth over of the chase, with fellow opener Lokesh Rahul falling just three balls earlier, Gayle tried to cut Morkel over third man for another maximum. However, Gayle did not get enough wood on leather as the ball sailed straight into the hands of Umesh Yadav stationed at the rope.
Bangalore were down to 26 for two and the Daredevils were charged up, eager to notch their first win of the tournament. However, Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli and his equally swashbuckling batting partner, AB de Villiers, were in no mood for mercy as they launched a right assault on the Delhi bowlers, carting them to all parts of the ground.
When they swung, they swung hard. When they slashed, they slashed harder. The way the duo were finding the gaps and clearing the fence by yards, Delhi found themselves slipping further and further away. The duo brought up their 100-run partnership in no time, and were coasting along at 129 for two in the 16th over when disaster struck.
De Villiers pushed for a quick single to mid-off, where Morkel swiftly picked the ball up and flung the ball bullseye on the stumps with his South African counterpart yards short. 129 for three in 16; 23 to win from 24 balls. Still RCB’s game, right?
What followed was something worse than a nightmare for the home team. Andrew McDonald gave a simple return catch to Shahbaz Nadeem, before Arun Karthik ran himself out going for an unnecessary third run. RCB slipped to 136 for five in 18, but with Kohli still there and 17 to get off the last two overs, the odds were still slightly in Bangalore's favour.
Syed Mohammed then slogged straight to long on to make it 138 for six. Then, the last pin fell. Kohli tried to smash Umesh Yadav past cover, but his counterpart Jayawardene intervened to take a stunning catch. Delhi were jubiliant as they thought they had snatched a win. However, Ravi Rampaul stepped in and spanked Irfan Pathan over extra cover for six to make it seven to win in five balls.
RCB managed to get just six and ensured they play their second Super Over of the tournament.
