IPL 8: Chris Gayle, bowlers fashion big win for RCB

Fiery pacemen

It has been just three games since Mitchell Starc, on the sidelines because of injury, joined the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Before his inclusion, Bangalore had struggled to keep a check on their opponents’ scoring rate in the first six overs. In RCB’s first three matches, when Starc wasn’t playing, they conceded 53 against Kolkata, 65 versus Hyderabad and 48 against Mumbai in the Powerplay Overs. Once Starc began to open the bowling, Delhi conceded marginally less number of runs in the first six – 45 against Chennai, and 45 against Rajasthan. Against Delhi, Starc was even more effective as RCB conceded just 38 runs in the first six. The other tearaway quick in the Bangalore ranks, Varun Aaron, also played his part in making life difficult for the Delhi batsmen. But it was Starc who made an impact straightaway by dismissing the promising opener Shreyas Iyer in the first over.

From the other end, Aaron too bent his back and clocked 145 kmph regularly. Aaron was a bit erratic in his first two overs but when he got it right later, it was clear that his pace was a handful for the batsmen. RCB skipper Virat Kohli also brought into the attack David Wiese, who removed Delhi skipper JP Duminy in the fifth over after Aaron was hit for 13 in his second over. Aaron returned in the seventh over and his pace was enough to surprise Yuvraj Singh, who edged to the wicketkeeper. Off the every next delivery, Aaron got rid of Angelo Matthews with a short ball that was measured at 145-plus. He, however, couldn’t dismiss Kedar Jadhav on the hat-trick delivery but had successfully broken Delhi’s back bone. Starc returned to the attack in the 15th over and from around the wicket he used his yorker-length deliveries to clean up Amit Mishra and Shahbaz Nadeem.

JP’s soft dismissal 

Once again Delhi’s top order collapsed and the side failed to recover. The loss of skipper Duminy, who made 13 off 14, only made their task tougher. Duminy has managed to be among the runs by making two scores in the 40s and also having scored two half-centuries, including an unbeaten 78 against Mumbai Indians in the last game. However, on Sunday, the Delhi skipper would not have have been proud of the manner of his dismissal. After striking two boundaries and quickly moving into double figures, Duminy fell to David Wiese. But he won’t like to see replays of this particular soft dismissal. The length ball was out of his reach, but Duminy tried to poke at it to only give wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik a simple catch. Delhi were soon four down in the seventh over and from here the team’s chances of putting up a challenging total looked bleak.

Romp home

Chasing 96 was an easy task especially for RCB once the openers – Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli got going. Gayle made an unbeaten 62 off 40 balls while Kohli was unconquered on 35 off 23 balls. After seeing off the opening over from Nathan Coulter-Nile, Gayle came into his elements. And once Gayle gets going, it is very difficult for the bowlers to stop him. Gayle went after every bowler who tried to find the length ball. He hit six huge sixes – money’s worth on a Sunday evening.