IPL 2018: Match 8, RCB vs KXIP - Rating of the Match

The raucous crowd of Chinnaswamy Stadium welcomed the heroes of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) with a renewed hope for the first game of the season. Though there were mixed feelings for them as three of their local boys were playing for Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and one of them (KL Rahul) blazed away once again and scored 47 runs. However, AB de Villiers stood like a rock in the middle for the team in red and won the game when the going got tough for the hosts.

Umesh Yadav’s sensational over (4 runs and 3 wickets)

KXIP had got off to a great start and the hosts were in desperate need to put the brakes on the run-scoring. Umesh Yadav was the man for them to step up to the task with his tails up. He started his second over with a bang with a pacy full-length delivery as Mayank Agarwal swung hard only to get the healthy leading edge. The catch has to be specially mentioned here as Quinton de Kock flown to his right to pull off a stunner.

The next delivery brought even more joy to the RCB fans as the ‘just married’ Aaron Finch bagged a golden duck. Umesh was up with his pace and bowled a length ball around middle stump as the batsman missed the flick off his toes only to get pinned in front of the stumps. He reviewed though only in hope and the umpire’s call stayed.

When everyone thought that the over was done and dusted, Umesh came from around the wicket to send the middle stump of Yuvraj Singh for a walk. It was once again a length delivery bowled cleverly using the width of the crease which Yuvi missed by a fair distance. The over completely changed the game as RCB bossed from there on by keeping a lid on the opposition and one has to credit Umesh for his efforts. he bent his back when his team needed the most and the results followed.

Mujeeb cleans up Kohli

Much like the other mystery spinners, Mujeeb Zadran has taken this season by storm. He is extremely difficult to pick off his hands as well and has a lot of variations up his sleeves. KXIP needed key wicket of their skipper Virat Kohli early to make the chase of 158 interesting and the young man got him with an absolute ripper. He bowled a traditional googly to the man in form as Kohli got his stride forward to drive only to miss the ball courtesy the huge turn.

The ball went through his gate and crashed on to his stumps to leave the jam-packed Chinnaswamy crowd shell shocked. Even Kohli was miffed with himself and the game was left wide with the fall of his wicket.

ABD special treats the crowd

AB de Villiers came in at the fall of the wicket of Virat Kohli and his team needed him to stay in the middle until the end. He played the patient knock manouvering the ball while Quinton de Kock played a few shots in the middle orders. However, the spinners of the visitors made life tough for them by bowling excellent lines. There were no boundaries whatsoever for a long time but the man kept himself going with singles and kept an eye on the required run-rate.

Ashwin had kept Mujeeb Zadran’s last over up his sleeves and unleashed him when the required run-rate went above 10. But the champion De Villiers first scored a maximum off an overpitched delivery and the pressure got to the youngster as he dropped the next short only for the batsman to send into the second tier. The South African didn’t stop there as he smashed a delightful straight six in the next over off Mohit Sharma and eventually closed the match.

Though he couldn’t finish the match, De Villiers’ knock was enough for RCB to win them the match on the day.

Here’s CricTracker’s rating of the match:

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