On this day in 2019 - RCB beat KXIP

Despite losing the first six games of the season, RCB still found themselves miraculously afloat after 10 games in the 2019 season. Three wins between the seventh and the tenth game had ensured that RCB, although very slim, had a chance of sneaking into the playoffs. With 4 more games to go in the season, every game was to be treated as a knockout match. RCB’s next opponents in their path were KXIP, the team against whom Bangalore had tasted their first victory of the season in Mohali.

Batting first, RCB got a quick start to their innings. Kohli caressed two trademark cover drives off Shami in the second over of the innings, and Parthiv Patel clipped one off his legs a couple of balls later. The first jolt for RCB came in the fourth over as Kohli attempting a similar shot which had brought him success against Shami, only left him stranded this time, as an uppish drive found a keen Mandeep at covers. Kohli’s dismissal brought AB de Villiers to the middle, but it was Parthiv Patel who snatched the initiative away from KXIP. Parthiv took 18 runs off Shami’s third and the final over of the powerplay, all of them coming in boundaries, including a slog over mid-wicket which cleared the mid-wicket fence. RCB were going at nearly 12 an over by the end of the powerplay.

Parthiv, however, could not capitalise on the flying start, and a lazy attempt at working the ball away resulted in a leading-edge which brought his downfall. Moeen Ali and Akshdeep Nath soon followed, and all the good work of the powerplay had been undone.  RCB had lost 3 wickets for 11 runs in the three overs after the powerplay. AB De Villiers and Marcus Stoinis found themselves having a recovery job on their hands and they went about it quietly. With the KXIP spinners - the two Ashwins - taking control, the 43 balls between overs 6.3 and 13.5 saw not a single boundary being scored. The innings was sauntering along at a leisurely pace. 

The drought was finally soothed when Stoinis took on M Ashwin and deposited him over the straight boundary. The six opened the floodgates and de Villiers took on Ankit Rajpoot successfully in the very next over. A boundary and a humongous six later, the innings had suddenly woken up from its slumber. However, there was plenty of work still left to be done to put up a competitive score, with 5 overs left and the score on 122/4. Kings XI skipper R Ashwin was in the middle of an excellent spell of bowling, and the 17th over of the innings yielded only 5 runs. The positive for RCB was that they still had two set batsmen at the crease with three overs to go, and one of them was AB De Villiers.

A boundary and a six off the second and third ball of Hardus Viljoen’s bowling, the former bringing up de Villiers’ half-century off 35 balls, was the first sign of the carnage to come. Mohammed Shami had little to smile about the rest of the day except the wicket of Kohli, and de Villiers compounded his misery. Three consecutive sixers off his bowling in the penultimate over of the innings had catapulted the score to 175. De Villiers showed no mercy on his fellow South African fast bowler, Viljoen, the first ball of the last over clearing the ropes. Stoinis joined in on the party, and 20 runs were taken off the last four balls of the innings. The AB de Villiers- Stoinis partnership was worth an unbeaten 121. The last three overs of the innings had fetched a mammoth 64 runs. RCB had scored 202 in their 20 overs - a score which would have looked improbable after 17 overs, even with De Villiers batting.

De Villiers-Stoinis partnership was worth 121 runs, 64 of them came off the final 3 overs

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The KXIP run-chase began on a frightening note, much like RCB’s innings. Chris Gayle and KL Rahul took off from the beginning, and Punjab had raced to 36/0 in 3 overs. A yorker which missed its mark saw itself deposited over long-on by Chris Gayle off Umesh Yadav and RCB were fearing a sight which once they treasured. Umesh Yadav, however, completed the job he was tasked with. Gayle attempted to pull a short ball but only managed to misuse it to long-on. De Villiers completed the catch with nonchalance inches from the boundary and the dangerous Gayle storm had passed without leaving much destruction in its wake.

If the dismissal of Gayle had brought a semblance of comfort for RCB fans, it was not to last for long. KL Rahul, now accompanied by his Karnataka and Indian teammate Mayank Agarwal went about the run-chase with the proficiency of veterans. The two local boys put on a spectacle on a familiar turf and Punjab raced to 100 in 9 overs. With half the target already scaled and more than half of the overs left, KXIP were firm favorites on a ground where improbable run-chases are achieved with comical ease. But, as the old adage in cricket goes, wickets change games. A casual shot by Mayank Agarwal had given RCB a much-needed breakthrough; Stoinis was proving his all-round worth. One brought two, as KL Rahul Rahul failed in his attempt to clear the long-off fence off Moeen Ali’s first ball. The game had flipped on its head, with both the set batsmen now dismissed. 

Punjab’s innings mirrored RCB’s as even the team from up North struggled to up the run rate during the middle overs. With the required rate getting out of hand, Nicholas Pooran decided not to die wondering and launched into Washington Sundar; the 14th over of the innings had been taken for 19 runs, including 3 sixers. The Pooran-Miller partnership was chugging along and the equation had been reduced to an achievable 30 runs off the last two overs.  

As is often the case, the 19th over was the turning point. Whoever managed to come out on top, would invariably win the game. RCB skipper Kohli turned to Navdeep Saini, one of the brightest sparks for RCB in the 2019 campaign. The speedster from Haryana showed exactly why he is rated so high. The first and the last ball of the over saw the back of both the set batsmen and the over had gone for only 3 runs. Umesh Yadav had 27 runs to defend off the last over of the innings and might’ve had flashbacks from 3 nights ago when 26 runs were almost chased down. But this time, he did not have M.S. Dhoni to bowl at. Umesh might have felt a little flutter in his heart when the first ball went for a six, but he managed to keep his cool, and the rest of the over went for only 3 more runs. RCB had defended the total by 17 runs and kept themselves alive in the tournament.