After 16 overs of their innings, Royal Challengers Bangalore were 106
for 3, and Virat Kohli was 47 off 43. When Kohli was run out while
attempting the second off the last ball of the innings, he had reached
99 off 58, and Royal Challengers had finished 183. Not many team recover
from such an onslaught. Delhi Daredevils tried hard to recover, but
lost out to a limping Jaydev Unadkat's five-for and crashed to their
10th loss out of 13 matches. Royal Challengers moved to 16 points from
13 matches, staying in touch with the other three contenders for three
open spots in the playoffs.
Those four overs, when Kohli and AB de Villiers hit six sixes and seven
fours to loot 77 runs, took the game away from the hosts, but until then
they had bowled pretty well on a slow surface. The same couldn't be
said of their fielding and field placements. The fashionable wide slip, a
simple drop by Virender Sehwag and a no-ball by inches all cost them
wickets after they had got the better of Chris Gayle.
Finally given the first over the innings, Morne Morkel grew a leg and
bowled fast, accurate and extracted movement. He had Kohli edging
through even before he had scored, but had overstepped by an inch.
Virender Sehwag soon dropped Kohli when he was 14. However, despite
those blemishes they kept the lid on until Kohli and de Villiers towards
the end.
De Villers began the onslaught, attacking his South Africa team-mate and
the best Daredevils bower, Morkel. With 17 runs off the 17th over,
including a ramp over fine leg, de Villiers might just have freed Kohli
up a bit too. He had been anchoring the innings until then, but he now
got stuck into his India team-mate, Umesh Yadav. Twenty-four came off
that over, and it only got worse for Daredevils.
Kohli didn't go crazy with the hitting, but with the strike staying with
him, he trusted his trademark shots to punish Yadav some more in the
final over of the innings. One of them was a four through wide long-on,
and the other a drive through extra cover. He was now 86 with three
balls to go. Then came two straight sixes. The run-out of the final ball
kept the damage down to 23, but enough had been done.
Ravi Rampaul sconed Sehwag twice early in the second innings, and with
Sehwag struggling Mahela Jayawardene fell in search of quick runs.
Unadkat then took out the softened Sehwag with a slower ball, and
Daredvils were 49 for 1 in the sixth over. Around those events, though,
Unmukt Chand survived despite a loud edge through to the keeper, and
Unadkat injured himself fielding in the deep.
With nothing to lose, Daredevils kept going after the total, and stayed
in the hunt, but Unadkat once again split the game open when brought
back in the 17th over. Daredevils were 129 for 4 then. Soon to be 133
for 6 by the end of that over.
It did become a bit interesting with slightly poor bowling over the next
two overs, and even poorer umpiring. In the 19th over, Rampaul was
no-balled with half his foot behind the line, and the third umpire
didn't intervene. He got his own back with a dot-ball Yorker, but
conceded a six off the last ball, leaving Unadkat 18 to defend in the
last over.
Both Morkel and Irfan Pathan hit him for a four each before Unadkat came
back with a yorker to send back Morkel and seal the win.
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