BENGALURU: The IPL is in its 11th edition, and many things have changed in the last 10 years including the introduction of strategy breaks and DRS. Also, temporarily suspended teams have made a comeback. However, the performance of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils, in all these years, has more or less been the same. They are both underachievers. Keeping that in mind, both teams made a few good buys at the auction. To be fair, Challengers and Daredevils, on paper, have a solid line-up capable of winning the title. However, both have lost three each.
Hence, when Challengers and Daredevils met on Saturday, it was matter of getting things back on track. There was a serious need to play good cricket and climb the table. With Virat Kohli calling it right during the toss, he asked the visitors to bat first. The decision could have been tricky with Kohli’s side having conceded 200 plus runs in their last two matches. It was imperative for their bowlers, who have come under severe criticism for their performance at the death, to start brightly. The bowlers were tight with their line and length, not giving runs easily early on.
Umesh Yadav brought smiles on the faces of the home crowd, sending back Gautam Gambhir in the third over. Jason Roy struggled when Yuzvendra Chahal was bowling. The leggie dismissed Roy for a 16-ball 5. With the pitch not helping batsmen, Daredevils were 28/2 in the first six overs, which was poor irrespective of the conditions. One needs to give credit to Kohli’s bowlers, who were disciplined. After losing Gambhir and Roy, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant were under pressure to steady the ship and also score runs at a decent pace.
The youngsters were in good form, rotating the strike and hitting boundaries when required. Just when things were falling in track for Daredevils, they lost Iyer (52), who, alongside Pant, laid down a good foundation for big hitters like Glenn Maxwell to take their team towards a good score. The Australian could have played a huge hand in the slog overs, but Maxwell did not even find the ropes once, scoring only four runs, falling to Chahal.
With Maxwell gone, Daredevils pinned all their hopes on Pant, who had got his eye in and what followed in the final few overs was Pant at his menacing best. The dangerous left-hander decided to cut loose and began dealing in sixes. He hit both seamers and spinners. Everything came out of the middle of his willow and once again it was Challengers at the receiving end at the death. Such was Pant’s confidence that the southpaw played a reverse scoop to Woakes for a boundary.
Pant’s innings (85), which comprised six fours and seven sixes, helped his team score 174. The hosts were once again poor at the death, allowing the visitors to score 71 in the last five. They had conceded 88 and 70 in their last two games as well. ashim.sunam@newindianexpress.com