IPL 2018, RCB vs DD: 4 things you might have missed in the game

The 19th match of Indian Premier League saw a bottom of the table clash where Delhi Daredevils locked horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore at M. Chinnaswamy stadium.

Delhi started their innings shakily losing both their openers in the powerplays. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer played sensibly with Pant playing an excellent innings and helping Delhi reach a respectable total of 174.

Bangalore too did not have a good start to their innings as they lost both Manan Vohra and Quinton De Kock early. The alarm bells started ringing in the RCB camp when Boult took a stunner to dismiss Virat Kohli. But the superman in AB De Villiers had other plans.

AB just destroyed Delhi’s bowling, smashing them to all parts of the park and in no time he took RCB home with a blistering knock of 90 of just 39 balls.

In between the brilliant innings played by Pant and De Villiers, let us have a look at some of the things that went unnoticed in the match.

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#1 Lowest powerplay score in IPL 2018

With spin playing its tricks on the Chinnaswamy track, DD batsmen found it really hard to get the RCB bowlers away in the powerplays. Gambhir and Roy both struggled for timing and scored 3 (10) and 5 (16) respectively.

As a result, Delhi Daredevils scored the lowest powerplay score in IPL 2018. They managed only 28 runs in the 6 overs of powerplays at the expense of 2 wickets.

The previous lowest powerplay score in the tournament was made by Rajasthan Royals when they were able to accumulate only 35 runs in the powerplay against Chennai Super Kings.

Although Pant and Iyer steadied the innings after early jitters, the powerplay certainly was a set back for Delhi Daredevils who have not been able to lay a good foundation throughout the tournament.

#2 Weird nature of Chinnaswamy track

IPL 2017 saw a re-laid Chinnaswamy track with a new and improved drainage system which saw the batting paradise turn into a spinner friendly wicket.

The track was expected to return to its own in the 2018 season and it did too. The first two home matches for RCB witnessed a run feast.

The weird thing happened in today’s match when Chahal started to turn the ball square in only the 3rd over of the innings. He got past the bat of Jason Roy on several occasions. Washington Sundar, the finger spinner, also turned the ball a fair amount.

The strange nature of the Bangalore wicket surprised everyone. It would be really interesting to see what the track serves in the next game.

#3 Maxwell continues being Chahal’s Bunny

Glenn Maxwell, one of the most explosive batsmen in world cricket, always has had problems facing the leg spin of Yuzvendra Chahal.

Chahal troubled Maxwell the last time when Australia toured India for the ODI series. He has dismissed Maxwell 4 times in international cricket in just 18 balls. He has also got Maxwell out on 3 occasions in the IPL.

Today’s match was no different. As soon as Maxwell came to crease Virat unleashed the leg spin of Chahal on him. The Australian batsman went for a reverse sweep but couldn’t time it and ended up hitting the ball in the air and giving an easy catch to Mohammad Siraj at third man.

Whether Maxwell finds a way to decode the leg spin of Chahal or whether he will continue being Chahal’s bunny would be interesting to see in the next DD vs RCB clash

#4 Yuzvendra Chahal not completing his quota of overs

Today’s match saw Virat Kohli committing a tactical error when he did not finish Yuzvendra Chahal’s quota of 4 overs.

Chahal was by far looks the best among all the RCB bowlers as he was turning the ball square and was beating batsmen all ends up. He got the important wickets of Jason Roy and Glenn Maxwell too.

Virat somehow seemed to miscalculate the number of overs left with Yuzvendra Chahal and the leggie ended up bowling only three overs on the day he looked most dangerous and threatened to take wickets.

Chahal figures read 3-0-22-2 at the end of DD’s innings.

It would be interesting to find out whether Virat held back Chahal because of the presence of two left-handers at the crease or did he really miscalculated things.

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