It was all going smooth for Saurashtra captain and Rajasthan Royals’ experienced death overs bowler Jaydev Unadkat until a certain AB de Villiers decided to come to his vintage self and hit 19 out of the 26 runs in the penultimate over of the innings, making him look stupid to concede 26 runs when 35 was required from the last two. In the next over as well, de Villiers hit a six of Jofra Archer’s bowling to seal the deal for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dubai.
The chase seemed more than difficult at one moment when 14 an over was required and there was no settled batsman at the crease, as both Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli got out at the same time. But as they say, 'never say never' and de Villiers believing in it, went for the kill at the end.
Unadkat, prior to his last over had given only 20 runs, so choosing him ahead of Jofra Archer to bowl the 19th was a sane choice at that moment by the skipper Steve Smith. But in hindsight, people may and did blame him for going for the wrong choice as the penultimate over must always be bowled by the best bowler in the team and that was Archer.
All said and done, credit must be given to de Villiers for applying himself in the chase. Reacting to an unimaginable victory, RCB skipper Virat Kohli said that it was important that they win the match as two points are very crucial at this stage.
The captain further talked about the hero of the game, AB de Villiers saying, “If we have to be honest, you are tense because you're not sure how many balls he will face. When he plays like that you want him to face every ball, no offense.”
Kohli further praised de Villiers saying that the South African ‘always bats by the situation and he ‘always looks at the team situation.’ “In my eyes, he's the most important match-winner in the IPL. It is purely because of the presence of that man in the middle the opposition feels we're not out of the game,” he added.
Analyzing the season as a whole and recounting the positives so far, Kohli said, “Young Dev has come in and has batted beautifully. Finch has made an impact at the top. We understand the dynamics. The bowling has stepped up this season. Guys have come back strongly when put under pressure. Saini has been brilliant. Chahal and ISuru have bowled well.”
Frustrated with two losses from positions where they could have easily won, Steve Smith said, “Sure [It] is a hard pill to swallow. Just got AB'd there. That's two in a row we were in the box seat to win but didn't.”
Disappointed with the way things shaped up after being able to put up a good score on the board, Smith said, “I think it was a good score on a slow wicket. I thought we built the pressure pretty well and it took a pretty special inning to take RCB home.” Answering the million-dollar question of why did he bowl Unadkat ahead of Archer in the penultimate over, the 33-year-old Australian said, “We wanted to use Jaydev to the bigger boundary, he bowls a lot of slower stuff into the wicket. But obviously, no boundary is big enough for AB.”
Experts too questioned Smith for how and why he bowled Unadkat in the penultimate over. But what was even more talked about was the ABD show. Talking about the same, a cricketer turned cricket analyst, Aakash Chopra said that he hadn't seen as big a blunder as by Steve Smith for not bowling Jofra Archer in the death overs."
On the other hand, Broadcast Journalist Vikrant Gupta was full of praises for AB de Villiers.
Boria Majumdar, one of the most renowned faces in the field of cricket analysis, questioned Virat Kohli stating that no one should ask ABD to come down the order, not even the captain himself.
Gaurav Kalra, one of the sports journalists generally known for his wit and charm and equally important sense of humor said that it was thanks to the genius mind of Virat Kohli that AB de came to finish the game, batting at the exact right position in the batting order.
Vimal Kumar, another broadcast journalist raised an altogether different set of topics saying that uncapped Indian players would be feeling proud that they shared dressing rooms with the great ABD.
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