Delhi Capitals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
In the 22nd Match of IPL 2021, the number 2 and 3 sides on the table, Delhi Capitals & Royal Challengers of Bangalore went head to head in a new venue at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. RCB was coming in after a defeat against CSK whereas DC was coming after a win in a super over against SRH.
Also read: Super Kings humble the Royal Challengers
Match Summary
Rishabh Pant won the toss and elected to ball first. For DC, Ishant Sharma came back into the playing 11 in place of Ravichandran Ashwin who took a break from IPL to be with his family. RCB brought in Daniel Sams who would be playing his debut game for RCB in place of Dan Christian & Rajat Patidar for Navdeep Saini.
With long-ish boundaries & slow-ish pitch, the match went right down to the wire. Delhi Capitals almost had the match in their pocket & however lost by 1 run while chasing 172. RCB’s batting was led by Ab De Villiers while Harshal Patel shone in the bowling to make sure RCB won this one.
First Innings
RCB were jolted early when they lost their opener & captain Virat Kohli (12 off 11 balls) to a young Turk Avesh Khan’s (4-0-24-1) modest delivery & soon after, Devdutt (17 off 14 balls) followed his partner’s pursuit as Ishant Sharma (4-1-26-1) deceived him by a slower ball & castling him.
With Maxwell (25 off 20 balls) & Rajat Patidar at the crease, Maxwell was looking to score runs and in the process got out to Amit Mishra’s (3-0-27-1) loopy leg-spin. Thereafter, ABD and Patidar added 54 runs for the fourth wicket & both of them shared the bulk of the runs. Eventually, Rajat Patidar (31 off 22 balls) got out to Axar Patel’s (4-0-33-1) bowling at the end of the 15th over and at the score of 114-4.
Soon after it was just one man’s show, ABD bedazzled the bowlers & his teammates with his six-hitting prowess hitting 5 sixes in his score of 75 off 42 balls. RCB put up a total of 171 at the loss of 5 wickets.
Second Innings
As one would expect, DC openers came in after the desert storm & started timing the ball with elegance. Prithvi Shaw (21 off 18 balls) showed us why he’s still one the best young white ball player scoring 3 fours in no time. However, DC lost two wickets of Shikhar Dhawan (6 off 7 balls) & Steve Smith (4 off 5 balls) in a quick session.
With Captain & Shaw on the crease, shot-making was not easy due to RCB bowlers bowling hard lengths. Shaw was soon dismissed caught behind off Harshal Patel’s bowling at 21. Marcus Stoinis (22 off 17 balls) and Pant added 45 runs for the fourth wicket before Harshal Patel (4-0-37-2) struck again to dismiss Stoinis for 22. With DC requiring 79 off 44 balls, it was an uphill task with Pant (58 off 48 balls) & Hetymer at the crease.
While the pitch was slow, run-scoring required patience & bowlers quickly running through the overs. Shimron Hetmyer (53 off 25 balls) with his fresh legs & clear mind made six-hitting look easy. Seeing both Pant & him bat together it felt as if they both were batting on different surfaces with Shimron hitting the majority of runs & scoring his fifty in no time. He took on Kyle Jamieson (4-0-32-1) in the 18th over hitting him for 3 sixes in an over.
Watch: Hetmyer’s quick fire 53* (25)
The scorecard read 13 runs off the last over. The ball was given to Mohammad Siraj (4-0-44-1) who held his nerves & made sure RCB won the match even when six were required of the last ball. Everyone was anticipating yet another blockbuster finish which did happen when Pant hit the ball for four towards backward point. With 6 runs needed off the last ball, DC come close to the target but lose by just 1 run.
Match moments
- Ishant Sharma playing his first match of this edition bowled a maiden over in the 5th over of RCB’s innings.
- Only ABD & Hetmyer scored in excess of 150 plus strike rate.
- Funnily, Harshal Patel today conceded just 37 runs in 4 overs compared to the spell against CSK in the previous game.
RCB went ahead of DC on the points table & now stand at the second position next only to CSK. The match which looked completely out of bounds for DC was lightened up by Hetymer & allowed DC to touch the finish lines & they just couldn’t by the barest of margins. You win some you lose some, today RCB not only won the hearts but the toss as well as the match. Rare days I would say for them but RCB fans live for these rare days.
Key Moments
- Sometimes, you win and sometimes you lose by a close margin. Learning doesn’t stop in either cases.
- No matter how difficult it seems to be, you have to keep fighting back and try your best in life.
- When you are put in a pressure situation, stick to your basics and skills and believe in yourself.
-By Vedant Vashist (Guest Author), Urvi Shah (Author)