IPL 2017 | RCB do the double over DD to end season on a high

Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 161/6 (Virat Kohli 58, Chris Gayle 48; Pat Cummins 2/21, Shahbaz Nadeem 1/12) beat Delhi Daredevils 151/10 (Rishabh Pant 45, Shreyash Iyer 32; Pawan Negi 3/10, Harshal Patel 2/43) by 10 runs.  

After a disappointing season, Chris Gayle looked intent on finishing on a high as he started off with two boundaries in the very first over and followed that up with a six in the second to take RCB to 17 off the first two overs. However, his partner Vishnu Vinod was finding it difficult against Zaheer Khan and Mohammed Shami and the introduction of Pat Cummins was the last nail in his coffin as his struggles of 3 from 9 balls, were brought to an abrupt end in the fifth over. Kohli and Gayle, rather than attack during the powerplay, opted to build a partnership and guided the team to 37/1 in the first six overs. Even the introduction of spin, once the field had been spread out, did not help RCB’s cause as they could only manage 29 runs in the next four overs to guide their team to a modest 66/1 at the midway point of the innings. 

Seeing the lack of runs, the duo picked Amit Mishra as the source of quick runs and managed to take 19 off the over with Gayle getting a six while Kohli bettered that with a boundary as well. However, keeping in trend with RCB’s season, Bangalore lost three wickets in the next four overs with Gayle, Head, and Kohli all back in the hut with the scoreboard reflecting 118/4 with just under three overs to go. Jadhav looked to accelerate with a six off Zaheer Khan but his running between the wickets let him down again as he failed to steal a quick single. Finally, a 5-ball 13 from Pawan Negi that included three consecutive boundaries in the last over ensured RCB went past the 160-run mark and handed Delhi a target with a required run rate over 8-runs an over.

Pant-Iyer stabilize DD innings after Avesh’s dream spell

RCB do the double over DD to salvage some pride

Kolhi decided to bring Harshal Patel back into the attack and it proved to be a major turning point in the game. Not only did the 26-year-old concede just 3 runs he also sent Iyer and Marlon Samuels packing on back-to-back deliveries. Pant was keeping Delhi in the hunt by rotating the strike well and putting the bad balls away for boundaries. Head then handed Delhi yet another double blow by sending both Corey Anderson and Pat Cummins back to the hut. Pant, too, was dismissed in the 17th leaving his side needing 45 off 20 balls. Shami and Mishra stitched together a quickfire 16 run partnership to keep Delhi in the hunt. Shami then took the injured Avesh Khan for 14 runs in the penultimate over to leave his side needing just 13 runs in the last over. But just as he had done in the first match between the two, Negi bowled a brilliant last over to secure a 10-run win for his team.