AB de Villiers
24 hours after Rahul Tewatia's inspirational teaching of 'Never say never', Mumbai Indians' big man Kieron Pollard sought to follow the Indian down the same path. Like Tewatia, he too looked to struggle, scoring only five off seven deliveries during Mumbai's tall chase of 202 although on a completely different track with a bigger boundary length. From there on, the veteran took on the two leg spinners Adam Zampa and Yuzvendra Chahal to smash five sixes and two boundaries to leave Mumbai on the brink of a realising a colossal chase. Ishan Kishan too joined the party smashing a combined three sixes off Navdeep Saini and Isuru Uadan. Mumbai scored 80 in the final four overs, but all the effort and excitement led to a second Super Over in IPL 2020, at the same venue.
Some superb deliveries from Navdeep Saini restricted Mumbai to just seven runs for the loss of one wicket. But a bigger test awaited the RCB dugout as they would be up against Jasprit Bumrah, a bowler who never lost a Super Over contest in T20 cricket. Eventually, a calm and composed pair of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli guided RCB to a Super Over thus handing Bumrah his first-ever defeat in a tie-breaker.
Ishan and Pollard had litterally hogged all the limelight despite the asking rate soaring well over 15. The dew factor was noticeble and the Mumbai Indians pair pounced on the advantage to hit the spinners all around the park, who up until the death over conceded at almost nine an over for a wicket each. Zampa leaked 27 runs off his final over with Pollard hitting three sixes and a four, while tha batting pair hit Chahal for three more maximums in the 18th over.
Saini had managed to pull back the procedings, conceding 12 runs off the 19th over, although it did include a six over long-off. However, Ishan added to RCB's woe, pulling two more sixes in the last over before Pollard took the game into the tie-breaker with a boundary off the last ball.
Earlier in the evening, De Villiers turned the clock back with his magnificent hitting after Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal's stroke-filled half-centuries took Royal Challengers Bangalore's to an imposing 201 for 3 against Mumbai Indians in an IPL game despite another failure from skipper Kohli.
It was De Villiers, who used all his might during the death overs to smash his way to an unbeaten 55 off 24 balls, taking the score past 200-run mark.
His innings had four sixes and as many boundaries as the swift yet brutal assault of Jasprit Bumrah (0/42 in 4 overs) will be remembered for a long time.
Even James Pattinson (0/51 in 4 overs) received a lot of stick as two-speed merchants accounted for 8 off the 10 sixes in the RCB innings. The remaining couple were hit off MI's most successful bowler Trent Boult (2/34).
The last five overs produced 78 runs with Shivam Dube scoring 27 not out off 10 balls.
While Australia's white ball skipper Aaron Finch scored 52 off 35 balls to get his team off to a flying start, the extremely elegant Padikkal upped the ante in the later half with some delightful big hits, scoring 54 off 40 balls. The duo added 81 runs for the opening stand.
Padikkal's innings was studded with five boundaries and two sixes and a good stand of 62 runs for the third wicket with De Villiers, who then provided the final flourish as he has been doing for years now.
The tall upright Padikkal's second IPL half-ton will be remembered specially for two sixes off fast bowler James Pattinson. The first was when the left-hander rocked on the backfoot and punched it over mid-off and the next was a stand and deliver straight into the sight screen.
This was after Finch took on the MI attack in the Powerplay overs and attacked both Bolt and Pattinson with great gusto. When leg spinner Rahul Chahar was introduced into the attack, Finch hit him for three boundaries as the 50 came off 31 balls. At that point Padikkal was only on 16.
Into the chase, Mumbai stuttered as they lost Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav inside the powerplay. Washington Sundar was the key bowler for RCB, conceding just seven runs off three overs in that phase, with 13 dot balls. Sundar had dismissed Rohit for eight while Udana got rid off Suryakumar four deliveries later. Chahal then added further trouble, sending Mumbai three down by dismissed Quinton de Kock for 14.
Ishan and Hardik Pandya then looked to rebuild the innings guiding Mumbai to 63 for three in 10 overs before the latter was dismissed by Zampa. Ishan then took charge of the chase with a flurry of boundaries in his knock of 99 runs before Pollard joined in.
(with PTI inputs)
Once Finch was holed out off a Boult slower, in came Kohli and looked as rusty as the last match during his nine ball stay. MI skipper Sharma changed Chahar's end, it yielded result as a delivery stopped on Kohli and his lazy inside out lofted shot was gleefully accepted at extra cover by Rohit.
Once De Villiers came in, Padikkal, changed gears as both started attacking the bowlers as a square cut off Kieron Pollard brought up his half-century.
