Virat Kohli
Kotla: It was a thrilling encounter between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils. It was an important match up for both the team, as both the teams were lying down the table and badly needed a win. It was Bangalore in the end that edged pass through Delhi in a scintillating encounter. Bangalore won the game by 3 wickets with 3 balls remaining.
Bangalore won the toss and elected to bowl first. Sehwag and Warner started off Delhi’s innings. They got off to a flying start, before Warner was cleaned off by a beauty from Zaheer Khan in the 4th over. The new addition to the team, James Hopes stepped in. Hopes along with Sehwag balanced the innings. Both were looking in fine touch, before Sehwag was run out trying to sneak a quick single. Sehwag got out for a score of 25. The young Wade was struggling with his form and it was a good opportunity for him to prove his worth. However he failed to perform as he perished to Mithun for 8 runs.
On the other end, Hopes continued playing good strokes and looked in fine touch. Rao, the inform batsmen for Delhi supported Hopes and both steadied the innings quite well. Both played good sensible cricket, especially Hopes, as he was timing the ball pretty well. Rao too looked good, until he played a horrendous shot and was cleaned up by Vettori for 24. Hopes made a well deserved fifty before he fell to Mithun in the 18th over. Delhi managed to pile up a decent total of 160-8 in their 20 overs.
Bangalore would have felt exceptionally comfortable restricting Delhi to 160. Gayle and Dilshan started of the proceedings for the Bangalore Team. But the Bangalore side got to the worst possible start. Dilshan got out in the very first over, without troubling the scorecard. Virat Kohli stepped in next. He along with Gayle got off pretty well, punishing the bowlers all around. Kohli did the bulk of scoring and Gayle too provided much needed support. The duo were harsh on the bowlers, with a run rate of 10 runs per over. Bangalore was cruising at that stage, before Gayle perished to Hopes for 26.
Kohli continued with his hammering. AB stepped in but his innings was short-lived. He got out to a brilliant display of fielding by Warner. Soon Kohli followed for a well made 56. Bangalore was 96-4 then after getting a solid start and the pendulum swung back in Delhi’s favour. Pujara too failed to impress and fell to Nagar in the 12th over. Bangalore looked in deep trouble with the run rate piling up. Tiwary and Vettori were the only pair Bangalore would have trusted to get them home.
Both played well and took calculative risks which turned out to be effective. The match once again swung in Bangalore’s favour, with Bangalore needing almost run a ball. But the match was filled with full of twists and turns as Tiwary perished to Morkel in the 16th over. Mithun too followed him in the same over and Delhi again got the hold of the game. It looked quite a task for the Challengers to win the game. The young Syed Mohammad complemented his captain well and struck two boundaries in the 19th over which almost ended Delhi’s hope of winning the game. The Bangalore Team finally got home with 3 wickets in hand.
Bangalore has now won two matches in a row and looks strong and confident. On the other hand, Delhi suffered another defeat which makes it more difficult for them to bounce back. Delhi surely needs to do a lot of homework and re-organise before their next encounter.
Tags: Cricket, DD, Delhi Daredevils, Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL 2011, IPL 4, RCB, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Virat Kohli
