Ravindra Jadeja’s all-round show hands RCB their first defeat of IPL 2021

Well, cricket is a great leveller, isn't it? RCB till the fateful Sunday afternoon had not lost a single game in the tournament, and a 69-run loss against the arch-rivals CSK would be more of an aberration than a worrying sign. It is not often that in a team game that one man might be regarded as having won the team a game, but on the day, it could have been a much tighter game if it weren’t for Ravindra Jadeja.

While in cricket we tend to often over-estimate the value of certain events, it would be hard to look past a dropped catch on the day which could well have cost RCB the game. While he was yet to get off the mark, a dropped catch proved to be extremely expensive as Jadeja would go on to make RCB pay with a stunning 28-ball 62, which propelled the Superkings to 192.

The dropped catch had even more significance, as it just flipped the momentum switch after RCB had managed to pick up the wickets of two set Chennai batsmen in Faf du Plessis and Suresh Raina off consecutive balls in the previous over by Harshal Patel. It was indeed a terrific effort by the bowlers to have clawed back into the game after the Superkings had gotten off to a terrific start courtesy a 74-run opening partnership between Ruturaj Gaekwad and Du Plessis.

The bowling at the death was proving to be impressive Siraj and Harshal having only given away 20 runs in 3 overs between the 17th and the 19th. However, the player of the match had different ideas in the final over against the purple cap holder, as he took 37 runs off the 20th to swing the game in CSK’s favor, taking a below-par score of 154 to an above par score of 191 in the space of one over.

RCB couldn’t have asked for a better start to the run-chase with Devdutt Padikkal picking up from where he left off against the Royals with some brilliant stroke play in the powerplay. While he was motoring along well, RCB looked well on course to chase down the 192 set by CSK. However, as cliche as it sounds, wickets changed the game. First, it was the Captain Virat Kohli who edged one to Dhoni behind the stumps, and a miscued pull by Devdutt which slowed down the rate. Dhoni was in his elements in the middle overs as the Wankhede track took turn. All the overs between 7 and 14 bowled by Ravindra Jadeja and Imran Tahir, which wrested complete control towards the men in yellow, as RCB plummeted from 65/2 to 94/8 in the span of those 8 overs. The spinners had taken a combined 29/5, while the 6th wicket came via a direct hit by none other than Jadeja.

For RCB, while the huge margin of loss may cause a feeling of needing to rejig, they would do well to remember that the same team had won 4 out of 4 before Ravindra Jadeja happened. As the team moves on to Ahmedabad where they will play their next 4 games, it gives them enough time to settle down as a unit and forget the one-off failure and move on.