BANGALORE, Apr 16: Royal Challengers Bangalore pulled off a nail-biting win over Delhi Daredevils via the Super Over in a thrilling Pepsi Indian Premier League match, here tonight.
With both teams tied at 152 after the end of Bangalore’s innings, the result was decided with the help of a Super Over wherein both sides got six balls each.
AB de Villiers smashed Umesh Yadav for two sixes, both over deep midwicket region, to help Bangalore score 15 runs in the Super Over. In reply, Delhi could manage only 11 runs with the loss of two wickets against a fired-up Ravi Rampaul, who removed danger-man David Warner on the very first ball and then went on to take the wicket of Ben Rohrer.
Irfan Pathan tried to earn the Daredevils their first win in the tournament, hitting a four and six over deep bacckward square leg, but his efforts fell short by five runs.
This was the second time a Super Over was played in just two weeks — both the occasions involving Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Earlier, needing 12 runs off the last over with three wickets in hand, Bangalore could not cross the finishing line despite skipper Virat Kohli’s sensational 50-ball 65 and AB de Villiers’ equally impressive 32-ball 39.
In the last over, Rampaul hit a six off Pathan’s first ball to bring down the equation to six off five balls but Pathan kept his cool and bowled within his limits to take the match into Super Over for the visitors.
Bangalore made heavy weather of their run chase despite a power-packed batting performance from Kohli and de Villiers.
Both added 103 runs in just 75 balls for the third-wicket to anchor the Bangalore’s run chase.
The downfall of de Villiers in the 16th over spelt doom for the hosts as their batsmen committed hara-kiri and from 129 for three, they slumped to 138 for seven.
Umesh Yadav bowled a sensational 19th over to get rid of J Syed Mohammad (1) and Kohli off the successive deliveries to make the life difficult for Bangalore batsmen as the pressure of mounting run-rate weighed heavily on them. (PTI)
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