The Manish Pandey Incident- Royal Challengers Bangalore qualified for the playoff of the IPL last year. They had to face Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator. SRH defeated RCB in the eliminator and progressed to play Qualifier 2. In the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League, RCB locked horned with SRH in match number 6. Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner won the toss and asked RCB to bat first. The pitch was tricky and RCB managed to post a total of 149/8 in their 20 overs. Glenn Maxwell guided the RCB innings to that total by scoring a good half-century.
Maxi batted sensibly on a tricky pitch holding one end tight and at the end hit some big blows. He scored 59 runs off 41 balls. His innings included five 4s and three 6s with a striker rate of 143.90.
Captain Virat Kohli did not have a pleasant time in the middle as he managed to score 33 runs off 29 balls. Kohli smacked four boundaries but failed to gain any momentum in his innings. As a result, he got out in the 13th over. For Sunrisers Hyderabad, Jason Holder picked up three wickets, whereas Rashid Khan picked up 2 wickets. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Natarajan and Shabaz Nadeem scalped one wicket each.
Shabaz Ahmed bowls a match-turning over
SRH lost Wriddhiman Saha very early in their innings in the third over. Captain David Warner and Manish Pandey stitched together an 83 runs partnership. Warner scored 53 off 37 balls. He hit seven 4s and one 6 during his innings. Just as Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow were looking to stamp on SRH’s victory, Shabaz Ahmed bowled a match-turning over.
He picked up the wickets of Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey in consecutive balls. He then picked up the wicket of Abdul Samad in the final delivery of the over. As a result of which, RCB could Restrict SRH to a score of 143 runs and hence registered a six-run victory.
— Sunny Singh (@SunnySi40932868) April 14, 2021
Virat Kohli- The mastermind of the decision
Simon Katich has stated that Virat Kohli trusted his gut feelings and asked Shabaz Ahmed to bowl the 17th over. Katich feels that Kohli should receive a lot of credits for trusting his instincts and taking this decision.
Simon Katich (in RCB website) said “During the strategic time out, Virat Kohli told us his gut feeling is to bowl Shahbaz again – we agreed to it. He deserves a lot of credit as skipper for taking and going with instincts”.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) April 15, 2021
RCB climbed up the ladder to the top spot in the points table with the win against SRH. Kohli’s side has kicked OFF IPL 2021 in a bright fashion by winning both the matches they have played. RCB will lock horns against Kolkata Knight Riders in their next match on April 18 at the Chepauk.
There has been a lot of criticism for Virat Kohli over the years for his poor captaincy. However, yesterday was not such a day. It was time that King Kohli stepped up under pressure and he exactly did that. The same can’t be said about Manish Pandey!! With that being said, things are now looking good for RCB this year. Can they win the IPL title this year?
