Yuzvendra Chahal
The pair of Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey had revived Sunrisers Hyderabad after an early and unfortunate dismissal of captain David Warner negating the pressure comfortably from the RCB attack while keeping run rate under check. But with the middle overs entering, all they required was to see of Yuzvendra Chahal.
The two managed to keep him quiet in his first two overs with the plan to milk runs from the other end. But with the required rate soaring a tad over nine, Manish sought to attack the leg spinner. Against a big leg-break placed well outside off in the penultimate delivery of the 12th over, Manish rocked back to flay it off side, but survived a caught-behind appeal on an RCB review. Chahal maintained the line and length and lured Manish to got for the big one over covers off the very next ball. Manish failed to middle the ball as the ball skewed off the bottom end to the fielder at long off.
With Chahal now expected in the death overs SRH rested hope on Bairstow, who with two boundaries off Umesh Yadav notched up yet another and a much-needed half-century. Despite an inexperienced middle-order to follow, SRH comfortably cruised to 121 for two after 15 overs in their chase to 164. Bairstow was set on 61 and the required rate was less than nine. And that is when Virat Kohli brought in Chahal for his final over.
The leggie lured the batsman with a flighted delivery for a big shot but Bairstow failed to get under it and the leg stump was shattered. And then in the very next ball, Chahal bowled a googly to deceive Vijay Shankar, sending back the all-rounder for a golden duck.
And all in a blink of an eye, SRH were 121 for four in 15.3 overs. Chahal's three-wicket burst had revived RCB with an immature middle order to be removed.
When I bowled to Pandey I had the cover fielder back, so maybe he thought I'll bowl outside offstump." Chahal explained. "But that ball, I bowled on the stumps.
"For Bairstow, I knew that we need his wicket that over to come back into the game, even if I go for runs. That's why I bowled it a bit fuller, but a bit on the legside, because it is very hard to hit from there since the ball is turning. And when Vijay (Shankar) came, Virat bhaiyya and AB (de Villiers) sir, we had decided that the first ball I will bowl a googly."
Captain Kohli later told the host broadcaster that the side ever gave up even when the momentun was in favour of the opposition, and that is what helped RCB to script that comeback.
"In the past if we had 43 off five, you would probably see shoulders dropping. The fact that we didn't let the negativity seep into the bowling group even when there was dew and it was difficult to bowl, the guys kept believing and kept bowling attacking areas. Someone like Shivam (Dube) coming in and bowling three proper overs was an outstanding sign for us… a part-timer coming and doing the job means the guys want the opportunity, they want to be in pressure situations. And that's the kind of mindset we want to be in.
