Man Of The Match- Yuzvendra Chahal (RCB)
MATCH RECAP
Sharjah Cricket Stadium, one of the historic cricket grounds, was the 30th venue of Indian Premier League. The pitch was absolute belter. With no grass covering at all, it was a good pitch to bat on! Winning the toss, the "Casing Master" and Captain of RCB, Virat Kohli choose to field first. Murli Vijay and Mayank Agarwal were watchful first up against the pace & bounce of Starc and little bit swing of Albie Morkel. Agarwal lookin to hit Starc out of the park perished after giving a simple catch to Kohli. Vijay was looking in great nick after hitting Starc for a six over mid-wicket. On the other end, stand in Captain of DD got out on a 'first ball duck', whereas Manoj Tiwary also didn't last longer. Quick wickets on the other end affected Vijay's concentration, who was undone by beautiful leg-spinner bowled by young Yuzvendra Chahal! DD were in spot of bother at 36/4 after 8 overs. Then Duminy and Ross Taylor started the rebuilding process. Young Chahal and Varun Aaron were bowling brilliantly, hardly giving anything away. The so called 'death bowling specialist' bowler Ashoke Dinda of RCB had a completely off day today, he went for 51 runs in his 4 overs. In last 5 overs of the Inning, DD managed to score 63 runs. Duminy and Taylor remained not out on 67 and 43 respectively, giving some sort of respectability to the score 145/4!
RCB were playing without Gaylestorm today, so Parthiv Patel and Nic Maddinson opened the inning for RCB. Both came in, in the attacking mood. Maddinson failed early, with Kartik taking a fine catch off Shami. Patel was then accompanied by Virat. He was looking solid as usual, but Patel was one who really took the attack to the opposition. In scored quick fire 37 in 28 balls before he got out in the 9th over. With 80 odd runs needed in 11 overs, 'struggling for form' Yuvi came out to join Kohli. He struggled first uo against one pacy over by Shami, but once the spinners came in he started to time the ball sweetly and hit some massive sixes. With 86/2 in 12 overs and requiring another 60 runs, Neesham and Agarwal dropped 2 simple catches in the 13th over bowled by Parnell. After that Kohli never looked back. He and Yuvraj then finished the game off in style, with 3.2 overs to spare. Yuvi was not out on 52(29) and Kohli on 49(38)!
My Views:-
DD's top order never looked to settle down on the new conditions of Sharjah. Agarwal and Tiwary failed for couple of "nothing balls", Whereas Vijay and Kartik were undone by beauty of deliveries. Ross Taylor and Duminy had to block 2-3 overs to make sure that more wickets don't fail. But in successfully doing that, they had to play far too many dot balls, courtesy of some disciplined bowling by Aaron and Chahal. Duminy changed his gears beautifully but Taylor struggled till the end. 145 odd runs was a below par score on that pitch.
To win the match from thereon, DD needed Kohli's wicket early in the inning. Kohli did create couple of chances by playing couple of risky shots, but he survived. The little man Parthiv Patel built the base of RCB's inning quite perfectly. Taking his chances at right times, respecting the good balls, he played gem of the inning. After his dismissal, it was time for Yuvi, as expected Shami did test him with short-balls and the plan seemed to be working, but again he survived. He took on leggie Rahul Sharma hitting him for huge sixes. Kohli was calm at the crease and scoring runs in singles and doubles, till he was dropped twice. After that, he also cut lose and scored runs quickly. Yuvi and Virat took them par the finishing line to grab 2 points.
According to me, Parthiv Patel's quick-fire inning was the one which turned the match. He attacked perfectly. And that put the DD under pressure straight-away. After that it was just a cake-walk for RCB with Yuvi, AB de Villiers yet to come and Kohli still in middle!
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