Plays of the day from the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians
Alagappan Muthu11-May-2016The captain’s bad luck
Virat Kohli flipped the coin, and when it didn’t land in his favour for the seventh time in 10 matches, he wondered if he needed the one from Bollywood movie , which had the same face on both sides. After such jokes, Kohli noted the dryness of the pitch but didn’t think it would hamper batting too badly. Only it did and he became its first victim. Mitchell McClenaghan began his first over with a short ball. Kohli wanted to glide it to third man and he probably would have had the ball come at the pace he expected. But it held on the pitch and Kohli couldn’t time it at all. Worse still, it generated extra bounce and the surprised batsman edged to Harbhajan Singh at fly slip.A rivalry renewed
McClenaghan had clocked KL Rahul on the helmet on April 20 and the bouncers resurfaced at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. The batsman was terribly late in trying to hook one on middle stump in the 15th over, but the top edge he managed still flew to the fine-leg boundary. McClenaghan dug the next ball in again, and angled it further down leg. Rahul attempted to sway away from the ball and ramp it over the wicketkeeper, but he couldn’t get under the ball, lost his balance and was knocked onto his backside.There were three balls left in the over and McClenaghan, thinking he had rattled Rahul, went for the sucker punch – the full and wide delivery. But the batsman had been waiting for it and whacked a straight six. The next one was short again, but it did not rise high enough and Rahul pulled it to the midwicket fence.Binny’s moment
Stuart Binny did not bat. He had bowled only six balls and found himself at the cover boundary in the 13th over. Mumbai Indians debutant Nitish Rana had survived Varun Aaron’s pace and was beginning to open up. The left-handed batsman liked his odds against the legspin of Yuzvendra Chahal, even hitting against the turn. He carved a full and flat delivery with the open face of the bat. The timing on the ball was top-class but Binny ran to his left, thrust his hands up and had to reach behind him to claim a fantastic catch. His concern then shifted to avoiding the boundary ropes as he hit the turf and once he did that, Binny came up facing the crowd with his arms spread wide and a giant smile on his face.De Villiers chips in
Ambati Rayudu had batted for the bulk of the chase, but he was merely holding one end up with 44 off 46 balls after the 15th over. Though Kieron Pollard was at the other end, an equation of 55 off 30 demanded both ends to fire. Rayudu took on an offcutter from Aaron but could not get the requisite power behind the shot. AB de Villiers at long-on charged forward, his eyes firmly on the ball was as it began its descent. It seemed set to fall short, except de Villiers threw himself head first at the ball – his body was at 30 degree angle with the ground too, to make sure the catch would be cleanly taken. Otherwise his elbows might have hit the ground hard and as a natural reflex action the ball might have popped out.Buttler’s signature
Jos Buttler is a power-hitter, but his ability to set up for a scoop over his left shoulder, and then adjust to scoop the same ball over the right shoulder indicates how loosely he must hold his bat. Aaron had spotted the England batsman shuffling across and shaping to hit the ball over short fine leg in the 16th over, and so naturally moved his line wide of off stump. While he did that well, the ball was still back of a length. Buttler recognised he could get under it, turned the bat to face third man and secured an outstanding boundary. The sharpness of mind and body required to do all that in a split second was remarkable.
