Royal Challengers Bangalore won a heart-racing thriller by a slender margin of four runs and had moved an inch closer to the play-offs. Delhi Daredevils saw some fine performances from Irfan Pathan, Unmukt Chand and Ben Rohrer but failed to get over the finish line as Jaydev Unadkat bowled brilliantly to take five wickets and put RCB on top. Earlier it was Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers who played some fabulous knock off 99 runs and 32 runs to post a huge total of 183 runs on the board.
Here we bring to you the hits and flops from the match between Delhi Daredevils (DD) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
HITS
Virat Kohli: Kohli was sensational with the bat. He started off slowly but made it in the final overs with his explosive batting. He scored just 43 runs in first 40 balls that he faced bit in next 18 balls he blasted 56 runs which took the match away from Delhi Daredevils. He took his team to a stiff total of 183 in their 20 overs.
Irfan Pathan: Pathan was impressive with the ball as well as with the bat. He gave away 24 runs in his four overs and picked up the big wicket of Chris Gayle who was looking really dangerous. He contributed with the bat too and scored 23 runs off 11 balls that he faced.
Unmukt Chand: Chand started off slowly but he was timing the ball really well and went onto score 41 runs off 35 balls. He scored four fours and one six in his knock. He kept the wickets intact and helped DD to give some lusty blows in the final overs.
Jaydev Unadkat: Unadkat picked up his maiden 5-wicket haul for his team in this edition of Indian Premier League. He took all the big wickets at very crucial times and put his team in the driver's seat. He ended up with a figure of 5/25.
Shahbaz Nadeem: Nadeem was brilliant with the ball as he gave away just 23 runs in his four overs and made sure that RCB is not off to a good start. He bowled some cheap overs and also got the big wicket of Moises Henriques who was trying to give some sort of momentum to the RCB’s innings.
AB De Villiers: De Villiers played another mind-boggling cameo as he scored 32 runs off just 17 balls. He smashed couple of sixes and fours in his knock and made sure that RCB will post a huge total of 183 runs on the board in their 20 overs.
Ben Rohrer: Rohrer played well during the chase of 184 runs and scored 32 runs off 27 balls. He scored four fours in his innings and kept the RCB bowlers under pressure.
FLOPS
Chris Gayle: Gayle took his time to get settled down but as he was about to explode Irfan Pathan got him out with a short ball. He departed after scoring just four runs off seven balls that he faced and RCB was deprived off a good start.
Umesh Yadav: Yadav had a terrible outing as he was smashed all over the park by Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers. He gave away 65 runs in his four overs which is just unacceptable from bowler of international standard. He kept bowling the length ball instead of yorkers or well-directed bouncers and paid the price quite heavily.
David Warner: Warner got out after scoring four runs and was bowled by his country-men Moises Henriques. He misjudged the pace of the delivery and ball went on to hit the timber and Warner had to make his way to the dug-out.
Kedar Jadhav: Jadhav didn’t play as per the expectation and got dismissed after scoring eight runs. Jadhav has played some stupendous innings in this IPL and he was expected to fire in this crunch situation .
Syed Mohammad: Syed gave away 20 runs in his one over which proved quite vital in the end. Though RCB won this thrilling contest but they would be looking forward to get their team combination right.
Vinay Kumar: Kumar once again went for plenty of runs in his four overs. He did pick up the important wicket of Rohrer but giving away 43 runs. His variation, which was quite remarkable in the first few matches, is now missing from his armoury and that is not a good sign.
By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Netwwork
