10:24pm And that is the end to yet another chaotic, intense night at the IPL. This tournament is slowly picking pace. Tomorrow it is Rajasthan Royals against Chennai Supers Kings. We'll see you there - good night!
Y Chahal: When I bowled my first over, there was a little grip. I decided to bowl a stump to stump line and my captain told me to go for attacking deliveries. One point of time they were batting well, so I can't bowl every ball fast. So I bowled wider and turning, which is difficult to hit. For Bairstow I went straighter and a little leg side because it's difficult to hit from there. For Shankar, Kohli came up to me and we decided to go for the googly first up.
Yuzvendra Chahal is the Man of the Match.
Virat Kohli: It's amazing to be honest. Last night we were only the other side of the result, 6-nil. Nice to be 1-nil. We kept our composure and Yuzi comes in and completely changes the game for us. Not many spinners got much out of the pitch, but tonight he showed that you can turn it if you have it in your wrists. He turned the game. To be honest, we started really well. Devdutt was really good on debut, Finchy as well. But whenyou lose two in two, you have to consolidate. If not for two in two, you were looking at maybe 10-20 runs more. In the past if we had 43 off 5, you'd see the shoulders dropping but the guys kept believing, kept attacking. Someone like Washy not bowling enough and a part-timer doing it are good signs.
AB de Villiers: Big surprise for me! [His innings]. It's a nice change to get on the right side of a close game early on in the season. We worked very hard for the win. It's a great start for us and hopefully a good sign of things to come. I surprised myself to be honest. We had a competitive game in South africa, which was great, gave me a little bit of confidence. As a 36-year-old to come here, having not played a lot of cricket, in the middle of some talented youngsters - was a pleasing start. Very happy with the basics, seems to be in place. [Padikkal] It's a tough thing to arrive at the IPL, they don't come more tough than that. The talent is just incredible. Every year there are 19 and 20 year olds coming through looking like they've played international cricket for a long time.
David Warner: Yeah look, can't remember I was out like that. It was a bizarre game for us. Obviously RCB played well here to get across the line. A lot of courage for Mitch to walk out. Doesn't look great, he can't put any weight on his leg. We always knew that they had to get some bowlers out at the end. Probably that last over of Chahal was the turning point there. We've obviously go back to the drawing board. We can't fix what happened tonight. Everyone knows that [to play Chahal out at that point], it is a talking point, but the guys don't need reminding.
Gaurav: "RCB needs to have a look at bowlers who are going to bowl death overs for them. Come Russells n Pollards n it's gonna be an entirely different ball game. Dale Steyn hardly looks a safe bet."
Srinath: "Apart from Warner, Bairstow and Pandey can any of the other players bat or can be relied upon to guide the team home? Doesnt look too good for SRH going forward...."
Nctbadri: "Happy for RCB, given they can easily strengthen team from here ..umesh has to be out and sundar can't play if he is going to bowl 1 over ! That's 2 slots plus if finch replaced by Kohli at top, they can add 1 more in the middle ..."
Abhishek: "Don't count out contribution of Navdeep Saini. Broke the middle order into two parts in just one over."
Gaurav: "Not coming hard on Vjay Shankar. But he needs to take a good hars look at his career so far. I can only remember his failures. The one against Bangladesh in Nidhas Cup. Replacing Rayudu in WC19 n coming dud. Sparking a collapse tonight. Just an honest observation."
abhishek singh: "ahh nothing special, its 2020.... RCB winning while defending......"
9:59pm A quite extraordinary collapse. Sunrisers were 121 for 2 with five balls of Yuzvendra Chahal to play out. Bairstow looked to slog one, Shankar was completely bamboozled and within a couple of minutes, their most experienced remaining batsmen were gone. The collapse eventually read 8 for 32 in 26 balls. Quite something. RCB left it quite thin with their bowling, Chahal pretty much being their big throw of the dice, but it worked out, and from there they completely grabbed the opportunity after being knocked around easily for the most part. Shivam Dube in particular would have excited his skipper at the end, with Saini doing what was expected off him. A good start to them with their recalibrated team. Despite the hiccups, they've managed to pull one off early in the season.
Sandeep Sharma c Kohli b Steyn 9 (6b 1x4 0x6) SR: 150.00
Abhishek: "MoM for me is Chahal. Turned the tide with those two wickets. Not to take anything away from AB or Saini."
Mahesh Shewale: "The wicket of Bairstow today and Mayank Agrawal yesterday highlight the importance of set batsman playing with responsibility till end on these wickets. " --- Dale Steyn to defend 18 against T Natarajan.
END OF OVER:19 | 4 Runs 1 Wkt | SRH: 146/9 (18 runs required from 6 balls, RR: 7.68, RRR: 18.00)
- T Natarajan2 (3b)
- Sandeep Sharma3 (3b)
- Shivam Dube3-0-15-2
- Navdeep Saini4-0-25-2
Mohantys: "And assuming to upset from here, my MoM has to be Saini with due respect to ABD's breathtaking innings. The guy has been sensational and got quality batters hopping around with sheer pace!"
Sundar S: "Why would Marsh even bother coming out? It's not exactly end of the world at stake here. The max he can achieve is aggravating his injury."
MR Marsh c Kohli b Dube 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
Range hitting duties only for Marsh tonight. Brave of him to be out there.
Marsh hobbles out to the middle.
END OF OVER:18 | 7 Runs 2 Wkts | SRH: 142/8 (22 runs required from 12 balls, RR: 7.88, RRR: 11.00)
- Sandeep Sharma1 (1b)
- Navdeep Saini4-0-25-2
- Shivam Dube2-0-11-1
Rashid Khan b Saini 6 (5b 1x4 0x6) SR: 120.00
Sandeep Sharma comes out. Presumably because Mitch Marsh cannot run and is likely being saved to stand at one end and look for boundaries if needed.
B Kumar b Saini 0 (2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
Three balls of Saini to go. Mitchell Marsh is padded up.
Sarah : "Understand why he bowled the short ball... but the man just got hit on the head... isn't that a little harsh and not exactly within the spirit of the game?? " --- There's an argument for spirt of cricket practitioners about whether collision run outs are within the spirit too
END OF OVER:17 | 8 Runs 2 Wkts | SRH: 135/6 (29 runs required from 18 balls, RR: 7.94, RRR: 9.66)
- Rashid Khan5 (2b)
- Shivam Dube2-0-11-1
- Yuzvendra Chahal4-0-18-3
Rashid is dazed and holding the back of his head. He looks concussed. On his feet for now...and he's put the helmet back on. He will continue. Saini to bowl at him.
Abhishek Sharma run out 7 (4b 1x4 0x6) SR: 175.00
Rashid Khan the new man. Still no word on Marsh.
PK Garg b Dube 12 (13b 1x4 0x6) SR: 92.30
Abhishek Sharma had scored 46* off 19 on his T20 debut, against RCB for Delhi Daredevils in 2018