Even though Mumbai Indians lost the match by 3 runs & RCB won it with a ball to spare it wouldn’t be wrong to say that cricket was a winner today, one tasted a unique flavor of T20; low scoring thrillers. The beauty of T20 is its ability produce nail bitters, IPL 2.0 is no different, and a nail bitter is more intense if it’s a low scoring one. In the end some tidy bowling and some shoddy batting saw Kings XI win by 3 runs. Lack of good bowlers and some shoddy performance by KKR saw RCB snatch victory from the hands of defeat.
119 was what Kings XI managed on a tired surface of Kingsmead which had already produced a low scoring chase in the afternoon. Mumbai Indians have the strongest bowling attack in this IPL 4 ODI specialist or rather T20 specialist. Malinga is a revelation this season, all he does is fires in toe crushing Yorker; batsman try to survive rather than score. At any instant it’s either ball or the bat of Yuvraj bat that moves; this time ball moved. Sangakkara anchored the innings to a respectable 119 even after some good death bowling from Malinga; the Yorker to Chawla was a treat to watch, right on the money. He now heads the purple cap for the most wickets in the series with an avg of 5 and econ of 4; that’s some numbers.
Chasing 120 on a slow pitch is quite tricky, and gets tougher when you lose Sanath of the first ball; he really is having a torrid time this IPL. Sachin followed him the next over to yet another Debutant; one needs a count on number of times Sachin has fallen to a Debutant. Abdulla’s toe crushing Yorker to Dhawan reduced MI to 12 for 3. Bravo got sucked into Powar’s flight and scooped into the deep. Duminy n Nayar did try to steady the sinking ship before Pathan punctured by rattling Nayar’s leg stump. Chawla’s penultimate was the key, the ploy of leg spinner against legside favored Bhajji worked out quite well in the end. And one can never take away the accurate and canning last over by Abdulla. Duminy finally fell to Abdulla’s variations slow bouncer caught at deep midwicket. Finally MI fell short by 3 runs after some good out fielding by Powar.
Earlier in the day KP’s RCB stole a nail bitter with a ball to spare. It was a historical day in T20 as 15 of 20 overs were bowled by 4 spinners and staring with spin at both the ends, reminding us the spin quartet of the 70s’. IPL 2.0 so far ironically has belonged to the spinners; Royals, Kings XI & now Challengers have started off with spinners. McCullum’s unforgettable nightmare continues as he fell for a golden duck to KP. Kumble is getting better with each game, KKR’s reached a defendable 139.
For the first time in IPL RCB have an opening stand of 69, Goswami’s run a ball 43 was vital, KP’s and Kohli’s wicket made sure that we have a nail bitter. Some hammering from Boucher made sure that SRK wouldn’t book his return ticket; and has wowed not to return until KKR starts winning, which means he won’t return. Ishant’s spell of 2 for 15 was the only silver lining. Late bashing from Boucher saw RCB win with a ball to spare.
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