De Villiers’ trademark batting style and unorthodox strokes did not let Mumbai bowlers settle down. Things, however, changed entirely in Mumbai’s favour after the fall of both AB and Ali’s wickets.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were hoping for a second win in IPL 2019, but it was once again, a disappointing end for RCB fans. Bangalore got off to a poor start as JP Behrendorff dismissed Virat Kohli in the third over of the match.
However, AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali steadied the ship by adding 105 runs in the third wicket and kept RCB in the game.
De Villiers’ trademark batting style and unorthodox strokes did not let Mumbai bowlers settle down. He added to the Bangalore side much-needed firepower and scored 75 runs off 51 balls.
Mooen Ali also made a fair contribution to the team and scored 50 runs off 32 balls. The partnership between Ali and de Villiers helped RCB
Things, however, changed entirely in Mumbai’s favour after the fall of both AB and Ali’s wickets. Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga used their experience to dismiss RCB’s young and inexperienced lower-order batsmen.
For just 25 runs five batsmen were dismissed by the Mumbai bowlers. By giving away a mere 33 runs in the last four overs, Bumrah and Malinga once again turned the tides in favour of Mumbai.
In reply, Mumbai Indians openers Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma gave a brilliant start to their innings and scored 70 runs in the first seven overs.
Both, De Kock and Sharma batted aggressively and took full advantage of the hardball and fielding restrictions.
There was a mini-collapse in the Mumbai middle order, which allowed RCB to come back into the game and exert pressure on the lower-order. From a very comfortable position of 70 for no loss in 7 overs, Mumbai Indians needed 21 runs off the last two overs.
But, it was Hardik Pandya who came to Mumbai’s rescue. The dashing all-rounder smashed two sixes and two fours in the 19th over which was bowled by Pawan Negi and saved the game, from what was a tricky situation.
Now, let's put on the captain's hat and try to figure out what went wrong for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Interestingly, Royal Challengers Bangalore decided to play only three foreigners and pick Akashdeep Nath over players like Shimron Hetmyer, Colin de Grandhomme, and Heinrich Klaasen.
It is true that these three cricketers haven’t done too well in IPL 2019, but it will be tough to convince anyone that Akashdeep Nath is a better bet than these three overseas cricketers, especially in the team RCB has.
Apart from overseas cricketers, RCB has also made some poor decisions while picking Indian players in their playing XI. Pawan Negi has played four matches in IPL 2019 and hasn’t opened his account with the bat.
In the bowling department, he has taken three wickets at an economy rate of 9.34. It would be fair to say that Negi has looked completely out of place in IPL 2019 and he is, in a way, a better bet than Shivam Dube, who has also not done that well but looks like a much better option as compared to Negi.
Dube has played just three matches and the amount of money RCB invested on him at the auction, they need to show a little more confidence on him and give him more opportunities, especially when other Indian all-rounders are struggling, too.
In the kind of form, Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard are, they can smash any bowler out of the park. But to give the 19th over of the innings to an inexperienced left-arm ‘dart’ spinner was a very poor decision by Virat Kohli.
An experienced bowler like Umesh Yadav who had two overs left was not chosen, and RCB decided to go with Negi, who has been out of form in IPL 2019. This shows that Kohli doesn’t trust his experienced bowlers who have been in such situations many times before.
Also, it reflects that Kohli ‘the tactician’ is lacking in some areas because giving the 19th over of the match to an inexperienced, out of form spinner against two of the most destructive batsmen in the game, who love batting against spinners, was a bizarre decision.
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