10 matches of IPL 2020 have produced a flurry of sixes, the highest successful run chase ever and not one but two Super Overs. Dubai was host to the second one-over eliminator as Royal Challengers Bangalore took on the mighty Mumbai Indians.
Winning the toss, Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma elected to field first. Bangalore openers Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal went hard from the word go with the former leading the charge.
Finch raced to 52 off 35 balls before his innings was brought to an end by Trent Boult in the 9th over.
Virat Kohli continued his poor IPL form, struggling even to turn the strike around, eventually falling for 3 off 11 balls in the 13th over.
The dismissals of Finch and Kohli prompted Padikkal to step up his scoring and with AB de Villiers going great guns at the other end, the duo started adding quick runs to the scoreboard.
Padikkal fell in the 18th over after a well made 54 off 40 balls.
However, de Villiers’s magnificent 55* off a mere 24 balls and Shivam Dube’s quickfire 27* off 10 balls propelled Bangalore to 201/3 in 20 overs.
Mumbai made a poor start to the chase. Kohli’s sharp move to use Washington Sundar in the powerplay stifled Mumbai’s scoring.
Sundar rewarded his skipper straight away with the wicket of Rohit Sharma in the 2nd over – Sharma out for a run-a-ball 8. In fact, Sundar’s first spell of three overs gave away just 7 runs.
Suryakumar Yadav was the next to depart – dismissed by Isuru Udana in the 3rd over for a duck.
Quinton de Kock (14 off 15 balls) and Hardik Pandya (15 off 13 balls) didn’t last too long either and soon Mumbai looked to be headed for certain defeat at 78/4 after 11.2 overs.
That’s when Ishan Kishan, in the team due to an injury to Saurabh Tiwary, and Kieron Pollard unleashed some magic.
Kishan had been an able supporter for his partner ever since he came to the crease at number 4 and had kept the scoreboard ticking over. With a partner like the big hitting Pollard at the other end, Kishan too began to go for the big shots.
With five overs left in the match, Mumbai still needed an unrealistic 90 runs though Pollard and Kishan were making a fight of it.
When Adam Zampa stepped up to bowl the 17th over, Mumbai required 80 runs in 24 balls. Bangalore might have thought they had the win in their pocket but Pollard had other ideas.
The big West Indians smashed the Zampa over for 27 runs and then, along with Kishan, followed it up by smacking Yuzvendra Chahal around the park to take 22 runs off his over.
It didn’t help that Bangalore dropped Pollard twice and Kishan once.
Navdeep Saini kept things a little quieter in the 19th over, giving away just 12 runs and that meant that Mumbai needed 19 in the last six balls of the match.
Udana was handed the ball for the final over. Kishan and Pollard managed just one run each off the first two balls before Ishan let loose two successive sixes to get Mumbai within touching distance of the target.
Udana got his revenge the next ball when he had Ishan Kishan caught at deep mid-wicket – Kishan missing his century by just 1 run, having made a sensational 99 off 58 balls which included 9 sixes.
With the batsmen having crossed over, Pollard faced the last ball – four would tie the match and six would win it.
Udana bowled the ball short and Pollard connected with big swipe to send it across the boundary rope for a four, tying the match and sending it into the second Super Over of this edition of the IPL.
Super Over
Mumbai picked Pollard and Hardik Pandya as its opening pair for the one-over eliminator with Bangalore handing the ball to Navdeep Saini.
Saini bowled marvellously to keep the duo quiet before Pollard sent him over the ropes for a boundary.
Saini managed to send Pollard back to the pavilion on the next ball and with just a bye off the last ball of the over, Mumbai managed just 7/1 in their one over.
Mumbai retained their faith in their number one bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, despite his forgettable evening that saw him go for 42 runs in four overs with no wickets, while Bangalore went with their top two batsmen – AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli.
Bumrah bowled a terrific over, keeping Kohli and de Villiers fairly quiet, giving away just 2 runs in the first three balls. But then an attempt to bounce de Villiers went for a top-edged four.
A single from de Villiers on the fifth ball tied the Super Over scores and despite a quick chat between skipper Rohit and bowler Bumrah, Kohli guided the last ball for a four to hand Bangalore a thrilling win – their second in three games so far.
AB de Villiers was named Man of the Match.