IPL: 3 epic clashes between DD and RCB at the Feroz Shah Kotla

#1 Kohli’s 99 and Unadakat’s 5-fer take RCB home in a close encounter – 2013

Put into bat first, RCB lost Chris Gayle very early in 2nd over for 4. Cheteshwar Pujara struck few boundaries before he was bowled off the bowling of Siddharth Kaul for 17 in the 5th over. Skipper Virat Kohli and Moises Henriques added 57 runs for the third wicket with Virat being the aggressor. Henriques (26) was dismissed in the 14th over when he offered a return catch to the bowler Shahbaz Nadeem.

AB de Villers walked into the crease and both the batsman took the attack to the opposition. Virat Kohli, in particular, launched himself into the Delhi Daredevils to put on an exhibition of fine batting display in the last 5 overs. He was particularly severe on Umesh Yadav as he smoked him all over Kotla.

Virat Kohli was batting on 76 until the final over that was to be bowled by Umesh Yadav. He scored 2 runs off the first ball and then followed it up with 2 consecutive fours and 2 consecutive sixes to take his score to 98 with 1 ball remaining in the over. On the last ball, he smashed one to the deep fielder but was run out in an attempt to reach the crease during the second run. He was run out for 99 and it was an unfortunate ending to a belligerent innings. In the end, RCB put up a solid total of 183 in their allotted 20 overs. The last 4 overs of RCB innings yielded 77 runs thanks to some breathtaking strokeplay by Virat Kohli 99 of 58 balls and AB de Villiers 32 of 17 balls.

Irfan Pathan, Siddharth Kaul, and Shahbaz Nadeem picked up 1 wicket each.

In reply, Delhi Daredevils began the run chase well but kept losing wickets at regular interval. Jaydev Unadakat accounted for both the openers Jayawardene (19) and Sehwag (18). Unmukt Chand and Ben Rohrer kept Delhi in the hunt by adding 58 runs for the 4th wicket. However, both the batsman were dismissed in the span of 2 overs that dented the chance of a win for the home side. Ben Rohrer was the first to go as he chopped one back on to his stumps for 32 of the bowling of Vinay Kumar in the 15th over. Unmukt Chand (41) was the next to be dismissed as he chipped one straight into the hands of Virat Kohli of the bowling of Jaydev Unadakat.

With more than 14 runs required per over of the last 4 over, Irfan Pathan and Morne Morkel struck few lusty blows to bring the required runs to 19 of the last over. Morne Morkel scored a boundary and followed it up with a single of the first two balls to give the strike back to Irfan Pathan. With 14 to win off 4 balls, Pathan smashed a boundary towards the fine leg region of the 3rd ball and followed it up with a single to bring the equation to 9 of 2 balls. Morne Morkel swung hard at a Yorker from Unadakat but missed it altogether, only to be bowled. This meant it was game over for Delhi, Umesh Yadav struck a boundary of the last ball but it was so near yet so far as Delhi lost the game by 4 runs.

For picking up 5 wickets for just 25 runs, Jaydev Unadakat was awarded Man of the match.