Here are the highlights of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s thrilling defeat to Delhi Capitals in Dubai
Royal Challengers Bangalore, was it right to field?
Before Monday, only one team won the toss and elected to bat in Dubai. With Sunrisers Hyderabad taking charge of the Chennai Super Kings, David Warner’s decision proved prudent. In all other In matches, the team that won the toss chose to take the field.
Yet Virat Kohli was elected to the field today. And lost. During the toss, Kohli said the reason for the chase was mainly based on the dew factor, which he had noted in some previous matches, including a successful chase for the Super Kings against Kings XI Punjab on Sunday. Motivated by the record partnership between Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis, Kohli said “a good partnership” is what was needed. The Royal Challengers lost three wickets in the powerplay. Their biggest partnership was 32 for the fourth wicket between Kohli and Moin Ali.
Was it a new beginning for the capitals of Delhi?
Twenty three Thirty-four. Thirty-six. Powerplay scored for the Capitals in its first three matches. This is a big weakness for the best team in the IPL. The desire to play with more intent was initiated by Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan in Sharjah in their last match against Kolkata Knight Riders, while the Capitals scored 57 for 1 after the first overs, which eventually led to a 228-run victory.
Shaw and Dhawan were even faster today as they are the second highest total in the powerplay of this IPL: 63 63 wickets. 0. 63. There are positive results from a positive start: ESPN’s forecaster predicts that the capital score will be 1 at6 at this stage. How accurate it was!
Capitals coach Ricky Ponting admitted on TV on Monday that the slow start was identified as a weakness. Many teams suffer from a slow start in which an opener prefers to play with a fixed strike rate. With batting orders including power-hitters in Shreyas Yer Yer, Hab Shab Pant, Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hatmeyer, the Capitals will no longer be able to permit inactivity, where no target seems to be reached.
Why was Washington Sundar bowled in the first 8 overs?
Despite a strong start to the Capitals, a Royal Challengers bowler who kept his head high was a cute birthday boy who turned 21 on Monday. Sundar gave up just 17 runs in the first six overs, including his second 10 runs. Dominated by Sundar Dhawan, he bowled 6 points off 13 balls against an experienced left-hander who could take just 7 singles against a sp fuspiner.
The challenge for Kohli was to accept the run rate of the capitals. As a captain, Kohli is a creature of habit. Halfway Mark was also pretty out in his previous match. No wonder then that Kohli asked Sundar to finish his spell in the first half of the innings. Sundar was not disappointed to finish as he was the most economical bowler of his team in the second match in a row with the figure of Ar-0-20-201 of.
But during the next half, especially against Habshabh Pant, did Kohli make a mistake by not keeping at least one over? Presumably, Kohli thought he had another sp fussiner from Moin Ali, who was quick for just 2 overs and Iyer’s wicket for 21 runs.
Why did Yuzvendra Chahal bowl in just three overs?
Chahal has been the best spinner in the tournament. However, the leg-spinner could not complete his quota by bowling three out of four overs today. You will notice the presence of Pant that Kohli has doubts in his mind by throwing the ball towards his senior legspinner. Match-up between Chahal and Pant in IPL earlier today: 31 balls, 45 runs and 1 wicket. Eventually, like St Nis and Pant, the strategy backfired, taking advantage of the momentum on the offer to allow the Capitals to end aggressively.
Did we see Stones 2.0?
Shane Warne lovingly calls Stoinis ‘The Hulk’. Stones with its powerful build gives a picture of being a power heater. Stoinis never made that promise before today. In the three years leading up to this IPL, the Stones have scored 1458 runs per 6.6 balls (according to ESPNcrisinfo’s ball-ball-data figures) with a strike rate of 126. In this IPL, Stoinis’ strike rate is around 199 as the Australian Australian has scored 123 off 62 balls with a boundary off 3.3 balls.
Most of those runs exploded on Monday as Stones showed the purpose of virtually every delivery. Mostly he was standing in the crease, often moving across the stumps to clear the boundary on the side of the foot with a stationary head. One of his best shots was a straight drive over Ali’s head, while the ball was in his body but he had a high elbow. The Stones batted 14 balls between 12 and 15 overs and scored 31 runs, the most by a batsman in that phase of the IPL. Today Stones was the incredible Hulk
ESPNcricinfo statistics with team inputs