IPL 2018: Match 19, RCB vs DD- Who Said What

The eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is almost into its halfway stage. However, the likes of Delhi Daredevils (DD) and the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have struggled to get going thus far. Going into the game, both the teams desperately needed a victory to set the ball rolling. The pitch was expected to be on the slower side, but the dew factor also was speculated to make an impact.

Pant and Iyer blaze away

Bearing in mind the conditions, Virat Kohli elected to field first. The start wasn’t an auspicious one for the Daredevils as they lost the wickets of Gautam Gambhir and Jason Roy in quick succession. Meanwhile, Yuzvendra Chahal imparted enough revs on the ball to keep the batsmen guessing. Thereafter, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer took charge and the duo got the Delhi innings on track.

The duo didn’t wondering and played a fearless brand of cricket and took Delhi to a respectable score in the end. Iyer was picked by Washington Sundar, but Pant carried on in his own merry way. He compiled an impressive partnership with Rahul Tewatia, which not only pulled them out of a precarious position, but also made them favourites after the first innings.

AB de Villiers- The show-stopper

RCB didn’t have an auspicious beginning to their innings as Manan Vohra, who made his debut for the franchise, perished early. Thereafter, Quinton de Kock got himself involved in a terrible mix up with his skipper, which saw the dismissal of the South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman. AB de Villiers and Kohli took charge and got the run-chase back on track.

However, Trent Boult grasped a stunning catch on the boundary, which left Virat Kohli stunned. When the right-handed batsman was dismissed, RCB still needed quite a few amounts of runs to emerge victorious, but de Villiers made a mockery of the score and helped his franchise win the contest by six wickets and with a couple of overs to spare.

Gautam Gambhir, the skipper of Delhi Daredevils said

I thought AB took the game away from us, the way he batted. We were very much in the game after scoring 175. At one point getting to 150-155 looked difficult. It was a bit tacky in the first six overs. Shreyas was unbelievable, Pant was unbelievable too. Our spinners could have bowled better against AB in the first six overs. When the spinners were bowling the ball was gripping as the ball was new, the seam was new, one wicket there and it was our game. AB took on the spinners and got away with it. (On Boult’s catch).

It’s the best catch I’ve ever seen. It was unbelievable because he’s a left-hander and he grabbed it in his right hand. It’s never easy. Things are getting desperate for us and hopefully we can turn things around when we go back home. We are professional cricketers and there can’t be excuses. Hopefully we can win a few and get the momentum in our favor. If you see the points table most of the teams are close to each other. So we need to reach the mid of the table first and then maybe in the top four.

Virat Kohli, the skipper of the Royal Challengers Bangalore said

I think the 30 runs tonight is much better than the 90 I got in the last game. Two points are very crucial for us at this stage. We really thought about how to go about it, and we still have a few areas. The guy (AB) in our team gives us plenty of reasons to smile.

We understand situations, understand each other’s games well. He started off in a great way, my job then became to stick it out, string in a 65-70 run partnership. And then the opposition know they have to protect the game, rather than going for a win. It was a pity I couldn’t stay till the end, but Corey and Mandy did really well to support him. They kept taking singles with positive intent and that is great to see. But AB just keeps taking the game away and that’s why there’s no doubt why he’s the best player in the world.

[On Boult’s catch] It’s one of those things you see regularly in the IPL. It’s good for the fans as well and when you look back you don’t really feel bad getting out to a catch like that, full credit to Trent. Till the 15-over mark we were really good with the ball and with the bat even after we lost early wickets we strung in small partnerships. Plenty of positives but plenty of areas where we can improve as well.

The crowd has always supported us in huge numbers; if the team believes, the crowd believes in us as well. We need the energy of the crowd and the players and we’ll keep doing it for them, giving it our everything and keep pushing forward for them.

Player of the Match, AB de Villiers said  

It’s one of those nights when you see the ball well. The last two innings I wasn’t hitting it too well, but today I felt it coming off the middle, watched it nice and early, bought myself that extra split second to make decisions and that’s when I need to cash in. When you do get on top of the bowler, you have to take him down. This is the best crowd in the world; I love playing here.

They keep backing us every game but I must say, whenever you get into that zone that crowd is only a buzz. And most of it today was a buzz. [On the ‘genius’ on his bat] I didn’t give myself that name, MRF did it (smiles). It’s a privilege playing with these bats, it’s some good stuff.

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