Third Man” - A Review by Kannan
IPL 2020 – Kings XI Punjab VS RCB, Dubai, 24th September’2020
Toss
RCB won the toss and put Kings to bat, as it has been a trend in this Tournament. Interestingly, 5 out of the 6 Matches have been won by Team batting first.
Preview
RCB came into this match with a clinical Performance against Sun Risers and looking to build up on the momentum, while Kings 11 were yet to come to terms with the heartache from the nail biting thriller against Delhi and needs a win to open their account in the Tournament.
KL Rahul, Mayank steady start, Chahal breaks through
The Kings 11 Openers KL and Mayank, knew their game in and out having played for Karnataka for a long time, gave a solid start putting 50 partnership for the 1st wicket in just 6 overs. KL was pleasing to watch with this controlled stroke play driving through the covers with aplomb, cutting , flicking and piercing the inner ring repeatedly against the likes of Steyn, Saini and Umesh. When they were looking for more, Chahal, the best spinner on show through out this tournament, dismissed Mayank with a beautiful googly and looked hungry for more prey at the form he was in.
What followed was one man show and complete decimation of his former employers bowling attack by KL Rahul, creating history by scoring the highest score ( 132*) by an Indian batsman in the history of IPL since inception in 2008.
KL Rahul smashes to a brilliant Century, Kings scores 209
KL Rahul is making a name for himself in Indian cricket by scoring consistently in the limited over format whenever he gets to wear the blue jersey. He has been in tremendous form for India and especially Kings XI – He was in supreme touch last year and seems to continue from where he left off. It has been a brilliant decision by Kumble & the Management to hand him over the captaincy and he seems to be relishing it and turning things with his bat as well.
KL is a free flowing, technically correct stoke player who has all the shots in the book and when he is on song, he is a treat to watch and a nightmare for the opposition bowlers. It was no different this time around as he accumulated runs and decided to go all out from the 10th over bowled by Umesh which went for 20 runs. He was calculative against Chahal, tapping him around and not giving him any chances, and picking the right bowlers he wanted to attack- Umesh, Steyn and Dube would like to forget the hammering they got as a bad dream.
His range of Strokeplay was on display as he cut, pulled, swept, slog swept the bowlers all round the park to reach the historical 132* of 69 balls at a phenomenal strike rate of 191, filled with 14 boundaries and 7 sixes – The pick of them has to be the pulled six of Dale Steyn which landed close to the midwicket roof followed by one whacked through extra cover for yet another biggie, Is this the Steyn who was one of the greatest of fast bowlers the game has even seen with 400 odd wickets??
Statistical insight on his assault in the last few overs will tell you the magnitude of this innings, Mindboggling numbers indeed.
Last 4 overs – 74 runs , Last 2 overs (Steyn and Dube) – 49 runs, 6,4,0,6,6,4,4,6,6 ( Looks like a telephone number ,isn’t it?) of the last 9 balls, 67% of the Teams run scored by KL. Lastly, KL Rahul scored 23 runs more than collectively RCB had score.
RCB supports KL Rahul
The magical century from KL was not without a chance, in fact there were 2 dropped catches, Kohli dropping him 2 relative simple catches at the boundary and helping his “former Team mate” to reach his spectacular hundred. It was a shame indeed that such a eye-catching innings has to be played in front of empty stadium in Dubai, while it would have got a rousing reception and chants of “ Rahul Rahul” would have reached high decibels had this been happened at the Chinnaswamy stadium.
Cottrell, Shami Destroys the Top order.
RCB had huge scoreboard pressure when the started their case and all eyes were on Padikkal, the new kid on the block, to repeat the heroics on his debut innings. However, Cottrell and Shami gave nothing away bowling with pace and control not allowing the openers to break-free. Cottrell was troubling the batsmen with his pace, short of the length bowling and left arm angle and snapped Padikkal early, followed by the “Big Fish” Kohli , both similar dismissals, with the ones that hurried to the batsman leading to miscued pulls to Bishnoi who accepted them with glee. Cottrell’s customary “ Royal Salute” show at the fall of each of the “ Challenger’s” wicket was adding up spice to the game. Shami , who has been economical and picking up early wickets in the 2 matches played, brought one back in and trapped the new comer Josh Philippe for a duck.
RCB had a disastrous start with the scoreboard reading 4/3, with a huge defeat at sight and all the hopes resting on the celebrated ABD, who promised in his short stay at the crease before outfoxed by M Ashwin, to a beauty of a googly tossed up nicely and AB miscued it to deep cover which was brilliantly caught by Sarfarz Khan.
Leg Spinner’s Party, RCB collapses to 97 all out.
ABD leaves, so as the hopes of a miraculous recovery from the RCB dug out and the die hard “vociferous “ RCB fans across the globe. What followed was a collapse leading to RCB getting dismissed for a meekly 97 which will only do more damage to their net run rate at the business end of the tournament.
It was the leg spinning due of the traditional M Ashwin and the talented under-19 cricketer Ravi Bishnoi who played the wrecker-in chief to dismantle the middle and lower order with their guiles and crafty bowling. While Ashwin was bowling slow and flighting the ball inviting the batsman to hit and outfoxing them, Bishnoi was slightly quicker , varying his pace and had the batsman dismissed through his faster ones and flippers. 3 Wickets in the bag each for the Leg spinners and the “ Mission accomplished” for Kings XI.
Changes needed for RCB
Chris Morris ( Injury worries) and Moen Ali are waiting in the wings and its high time one of them to be drafted into the 11 to set the combination all-right as Dube does not seems to be doing justice as an All-rounder. It is a tough call as this will lead to a shuffle in the overseas combination ( Aaron finch or Philippe to be out?), which will be another headache or Kohli & co.
Washington needs to be used at the right time, needs to bowl his full quota of overs to get the best out of his abilities. Dale Steyn is predictable and if he has to play, he needs to bowl out his over before the 15th over. Kohli has his task cut out, another couple of loses on the trot, RCB will be going down in the points table.
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