Yuzvendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini changed the game for RCB.
The third match of Dream11 IPL 2020 played between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) took-off in Dubai on 21st September. A happy day for all the RCBians! The team had a very difficult start last season but they bounced back starting with a winning match this year.
Taking a perfect estimation of the new ground, the Sunrisers chose to bowl first. However, they had a bad start amidst power play when they saw an astonishing opening partnership between Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch.
Picture courtesy: The QuintAaron Finch was supposed to take the pressure off the young debutang. But no, it was the other way round. Hitting a huge six on Abhishek Sharma’s ball, Padikkal made his first half century at IPL in 37 balls. Sunrisers bowler Vijay Shankar came back into the attack by taking the wicket of unstoppable Padikkal and breaking the partnership.
Devdutt Padikkal said, “It was great to get the half century out of the way. It was the first game and I wanted to start of well. I am happy to have done that. So happy to be training with Kohli. I was just eating his ears trying to pick up as much as possible. He said who you face doesn’t matter as long as you have confidence in yourself. I enjoyed batting with finch. I was comfortable from the word go batting alongside with him.”
The match was taken ahead by the fastest run taker AB de Villers and RCB captain Virat Kohli. Taking the responsibility of the team, De Villers scored his half century in 30 balls later hitting two sixes back to back on Sandeep Sharma’s over and setting a higher score for the Risers to chase. ABD also hit 200th six for the Royal Challengers.
Bowlers from Sunrisers were bowling pretty well after the power play. When Abhishek Sharma took wicket of Finch and Rashid Khan got the catch of the skipper Virat Kohli, the Risers built a little pressure on Challengers.
The conditions would have best suited the Sunrisers bowler Mitchell Marsh but succumbed to injuries, he had to walk-off the ground due to a limp in his leg. This brought a twist into the match and affected the best bowling side lethally.
Picture courtesy: DNA IndiaRoyal Challengers set a target of 164 which looked 20 runs short until Yuzi Chahal and Navdeep Saini came as a savior with their fantastic bowling. This match has given a feeling that RCB is now a well balanced side with the likes of 4 good batsmen in the top and middle order and a great mix of spinners and pacers in their team.
With the opening partnership of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow, Sunrisers were all set to chase the score made by the Royal Challengers. In the very first over by Dale Steyn, Warner started-off the chase by hitting a boundary.
RCB bowler Umesh Yadav who wasn’t bowling good, fortunately ran-out Warner at the non-strikers end. Bairstow who scored a half century, managed to do that because of the weak fielding by RCB where he got saved thrice from a catch out. Manish Pandey and Bairstow had built a good partnership which could have led to a win.
However, it was then the RCB’s bowlers show. Yuzvendra Chahal came into the picture by taking Manish Pandey’s wicket in his 3rd over and stumped Bairstow and Vijay Shankar back to back. Another bowler from RCB, Navdeep Saini who stumped Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan one after the other.
With the never say die attitude, Mitchell Marsh came to bat but his injured leg did not allow him to stay on the pitch for long. He got a catch out by Virat Kohli after hitting the first ball. Pulling up the score to 146 SRH needed 18 runs in the last 6 balls. But with a brilliant show put up by RCB bowlers, the tailenders were dismissed soon and consequently lost all 10 wickets.
The man of the match award was given to RCB spinner Yuzvendra Chahal for taking 3 wickets and giving just 18 runs in his spell of 4 overs.
Yuzi Chahal said, “When I bowled my first over, I realized I need to bowl stump-to-stump line and backed myself. When Vijay came Virat and AB told me to go for a googly and it worked. I put some mud on my hands to make sure there is no dew.”
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