In the last Indian Premier League season, Royal Challengers Bangalore lost a lot of close matches in the last over; matches they should hav...
In the last Indian Premier League season, Royal Challengers Bangalore lost a lot of close matches in the last over; matches they should have won but didn’t. And for a while, it looked like the bad habit would carry into IPL 2020 too. They got off to a good start – 90/0 after 10.5 overs – with opener Devdutt Padikkal leading the way. With Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in the line-up, most watchers felt RCB would kick into an even higher gear after that.
But instead, RCB lost two wickets and then were forced into a period of rebuilding, which saw them go 24 balls without a single boundary. This robbed them of momentum till ABD came to their rescue with a classic 51 off 30 balls, a knock which underscored his genius once again.
Having got to 163/5 in their innings, RCB’s bowlers started a little flat. They were lucky to get David Warner early after Umesh Yadav deflected one back onto the stumps with the Australian on 6. But Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey carried Sunrisers Hyderabad to 89/1 after 11.5 overs.
Watch: Chahal stars as stunning Sunrisers collapse hands Kohli’s RCB a winning start in IPL 2020
Pandey’s wicket gave RCB a glimpse of SRH’s...
