IPL 10: Match 5, Who Said What: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Delhi Daredevils

In an epic encounter, full of see-saw battles between the two sides, the home side held their nerves and came out victorious in the end after winning the match by 15 runs. The match started off with Watson winning the toss and electing to field first. After a jittery start, the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s innings came on track with Kedar Jadhav’s scintillating knock of 69 off 37 deliveries. His innings was laced with five massive hits over the ropes and five four’s. He was given ample support from Binny and Watson with their respective contribution. Amongst the bowlers, Chris Morris impressed the most with figures of 3-21 at an economy of only 5.35. Along with miserly assistance from Zaheer Khan and Shadab Nadeem, the Delhi Daredevils were restricted the home team to a score of 157.

While chasing, Delhi Daredevils stuttered along the entire run-chase by losing wickets at regular intervals. Rishab Pant, who played an important inning in his life after the demise of his late father, looked a class apart and threatened to take away the game from the Royal Challengers with a fluent 36- ball 57 at a strike rate of 158.33. He hit four sixes and three fours during the course of his impressive innings. Despite all his efforts, the visitors fell short of the total by 15 runs. RCB opened their account in the points table with this comforting win at home. Kedhar Jadhav was elected as the man of the match for his match winnings innings.

Kedhar Jadhav

Man of the match Kedhar Jadhav cited out that he has worked tremendously on his fitness and power, being a player of a short stature. He also opened up about taking extra responsibility in the absence of their star players in the side. Jadhav believes he is hitting the ball well and would like to continue the good form the rest of the tournament.

I’m feeling on top of my game and I’m working on my fitness too. At the age of 15, I was just clearing 30 yards but I was improvising well at that time. I just watch the ball, keep the options open and react to it. Even though I’m short, I work hard on my fitness and gym. When your top players are not playing, you have to take responsibility. I want to do that for the rest of the tournament too.

Shane Watson

The RCB skipper heaped praises for his finisher, Kedhar Jadhav. He believed that the wicket was tricky to bat on. Watto was especially impressed with the efforts of bowlers and the fielder. The Australian also reacted to the masterstroke he delivered in the ultimate over of the match by introducing Negi to defend their score. After being asked about the return of their star players, he said comically that they will be back the next game.

 It was a great win. Kedar batted beautifully. Our score was a bit below par, I think the wicket was slow tonight. You want to turn the momentum around very quickly even if it was only one loss. The way we fielded and bowled was very good tonight. Just my gut feel with Negi. Pant hadn’t seen him tonight. It was a gamble, no doubt about that. But the way Negi bowls, with his variations. Chahal has done it for a long time for the RCB and he has done it for India too. They’ll be back for the next game (when asked about the star players (Kohli & AB de Villiers). *Then he backtracks and says he’s joking*

Zaheer Khan 

The Delhi Daredevils skipper stated that absence of a partnership in the Delhi innings while batting, hurt their chances of winning the match. He believed that this was a match that they should have won had they applied themselves. The left armer was all praises for the young Rishab Pant who needed support from other batsmen. Zaheer also applauded the efforts of the Shahbaz Nadeem and also pointed out the depth in their bowling line-up.

Eight out of ten times we would got over this total. Just couldn’t get the partnerships going today. The wicket was playing well and we could have applied ourselves better. As soon as a new batsman is in, we needed to spend time in the middle getting used to the conditions but that wasn’t to be. Pant played really well and he needed some support at the other end. He showed real heart with his commitment and we are all there for him as a team. The ball was sitting up nicely and that is why 157 was possible to get is what I felt. Glad that Nadeem got the opportunity in this game. We have someone like Jayant sitting out and we have enough depth in the bowling. It is the batting that is inexperienced but once they get in, they would be unstoppable. I am happy to be back on the field, enjoying every moment with the boys.

RCB face KXIP on Monday, while Delhi Daredevils meet RPSG the next day