In the last Indian Premier League season, Royal Challengers Bangalore lost a lot of close matches in the last over; matches they should have won but didn’t. And for a while, it looked like the bad habit would carry into IPL 2020 too. They got off to a good start – 90/0 after 10.5 overs – with opener Devdutt Padikkal leading the way. With Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in the line-up, most watchers felt RCB would kick into an even higher gear after that.
But instead, RCB lost two wickets and then were forced into a period of rebuilding, which saw them go 24 balls without a single boundary. This robbed them of momentum till ABD came to their rescue with a classic 51 off 30 balls, a knock which underscored his genius once again.
Having got to 163/5 in their innings, RCB’s bowlers started a little flat. They were lucky to get David Warner early after Umesh Yadav…