(IPL) Royal Challengers Bangalore ended their VIVO IPL 2017 campaign with smiles after they defeated the Delhi Daredevils by 10 runs in the final league match of the season. At the Feroz Shah Kotla ground yesterday.
RCB batted first, posted 161, and then bundled the hosts for 151. The win was RCB’s third of the season and ended their six-match losing streak.
In the evening, after their captain had called correctly at the toss and decided his batsmen would take first strike, RCB finished their twenty overs at 161-6. The two main contributors to the total were opener Chris Gayle, who made 48, and skipper Virat Kohli, who made 58.
Gayle started off briskly, collecting two deliveries off Zaheer Khan in the first over, before depositing one from Mohammed Shami into the stands at third man. In the fourth over, Shami was at the receiving end yet again as the left-hander put away a short delivery into the stands at midwicket.
Kohli joined the big Jamaican in the fifth over after Vishnu Vinod (one of five changes RCB had made to their playing XI) dragged one from Pat Cummins on to his stumps. Gayle collected a boundary off Shami at the start of the sixth over, and RCB reached 37-1 by the time the power play overs had been bowled.
Kohli, for whom the Feroz Shah Kotla is his home ground in domestic cricket, played his first authoritative stroke in the eighth over when he whipped one on his pads to the midwicket boundary. In the next over, he played a sensational stroke – he caressed (punched) a Corey Anderson delivery bowled from around the stumps, and the timing ensured that the ball sailed over the ropes at long-off.
After a period of calm, during which both batsmen rotated the strike, Gayle cut loose in the twelfth over when he deposited Amit Mishra into the stands at midwicket; Kohli too joined in, as he hit the leg-spinner for a six and a four through midwicket. The partnership threatened to blossom into a big one when Shahbaz Nadeem dismissed Gayle; the Jamaican attempted to hit one through wide midwicket, but did not pick the wrist spin variation of the bowler, and holed out to midwicket. Gayle made 48 from 38 balls, and his innings included three boundaries and as many sixes.
Kohli brought up his half-century at the end of the 15th over, needing 39 balls to get to the milestone. The 17th over saw plenty of action; Zaheer Khan failed to cling on to a return catch from Kohli, after which the RCB skipper deposited a low full toss into the stands at midwicket. The DD captain though, had the last laugh as he threw one wide and Kohli couldn’t control his lofted drive and holed out to long off. Kohli was dismissed for 58 (45 balls, 3 fours, 3 sixes) and RCB had slipped to 118-4.
The visitors lost Kedar Jadhav and Sachin Baby in the following two overs, before Pawan Negi (13 not out) collected three consecutive boundaries in the final over – two of them through thick outside edges. RCB had added 49 runs in the final four overs and finished their twenty overs at 161-6.
Pat Cummins was DD’s best bowler; the Australian, brought on as first change, finished with impressive figures of 2/21. Nadeem and Zaheer were the other wicket-takers. Amit Mishra’s two overs cost 26 runs, while Corey Anderson completed his quota of four overs for the first time this season.
DD’s chase was rocked at the start when they lost Sanju Samson without a run on the board. Karun Nair struggled early on but then got a few quick runs, courtesy of the five boundaries he collected; he made 26 from 22 balls before miscuing a pull to the man at midwicket.
Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant got starts, though neither converted that to a big score; Shreyas made 32 from 29 balls before he slapped a short delivery to the cover fielder, while Pant made a stroke-filled 45 (34 balls, 3 fours, 2 sixes) before he played all over a slower delivery from Harshal Patel in the seventeenth over. In the end, DD only ran RCB close because of later-order hitting from Shami (21 from 9 balls, 3 sixes). The hosts were eventually bowled out – for the third time this season – off the last ball of the match; they had made 151 – 11 runs short of what they needed for a win.
For RCB, the debutant Avesh Khan clocked good speeds and generated steep bounce, hit the bat high on the maker’s name, and provided the first-over strike. The left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, introduced to bowl in the eighteenth over, finished with impressive figures of 3/10 from two overs, while Harshal Patel copped some punishment but picked up three crucial wickets. Travis Head (2/30) and Shane Watson (1/16) too chipped in with wickets.
Brief Scores
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 161-6 (Virat Kohli 58, Chris Gayle 48, Pat Cummins 2-21) beat Delhi Daredevils: 151 (Rishabh Pant 45, Shreyas Iyer 32, Harshal Patel 4-43, Pawan Negi 3-10, Travis Head 2-30) by 10 runs.
Man of the Match: Harshal Patel
