AB de Villiers playing the Reverse sweep
The IPL 2016 season has been a devastating and memorable one for all the Royal Challengers Bangalore fans and players, as the team made its final appearance for the third time. But before reaching the finals, they had an intense Qualifier 1 clash against Gujarat Lions, where at one point, it seemed to be impossible for the team to reach the final clash. With the aggressive batting style of AB de Villiers, the team was able to make it to the finals with ease. In this blog, we will be taking a look at the match and how AB de Villiers clutched for the challengers.
On 24 May 2016, the qualifiers of the IPL 2016 edition started, with a blockbuster clash between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Lions. Once again, the RCB captain, Virat Kohli, had the opportunity to take his team to the finals, and the match was being played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, known for its chasing conditions. Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to field first, aiming to take on early wickets of Gujarat’s batting line-up.
The first over started off well, with Sreenath Aravind conceding just 2 runs off the same over. Iqbal Abdulla came down with the second over of the innings and was able to take the wickets of Brendon McCullum (1 run off 4 balls) and Aaron Finch (4 runs off 6 balls) in the same over. Thus, RCB was handed early wickets of the openers, as their captain Suresh Raina came down to strike at number three, along with Dinesh Karthik.
With Shane Watson, the Australian legend, coming to bowl in the fourth over, Suresh Raina was also not able to last long on the crease. It was a tough battle between these two, but Watson won it in the end, dismissing Raina in the fourth over for the score of one run in 9 deliveries. Pressure was mounting clearly on the batting line-up of Gujarat Lions, as they needed a well-balanced partnership at this stage of the game. Fortunately, it was made possible by the team’s next batsman, Dwayne Smith.
Smith and Karthik had an impressive 85-run partnership, which came at a time when the team had lost three early wickets, and their score also did not go in double digits. Dwayne Smith took the responsibility of smashing boundaries against the RCB bowlers, while Dinesh Karthik played the anchor role for the team on the other end. However, captain Kohli had different plans, as he bought Chris Jordan for the 14th over.
Jordan was able to finally bring the breakthrough for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, as Dinesh Karthik was dismissed at the score of 26 runs off 30 balls. Ravindra Jadeja came to bat next, aiming to smash runs consecutively towards the death overs and help Smith. But the plan made by Gujarat Lions could not flourish in front of the Challengers, as Chahal took the much-needed wicket of Dwayne Smith in the 17th over, dismissing him at the score of 73 runs off 41 deliveries.
Jadeja had also lost his wicket cheaply in the 16th over, being out at the score of 3 runs off 7 deliveries. But following the wicket of Dwayne Smith, the batting order of Gujarat Lions seemed to have tumbled down completely. Dwayne Bravo and Praveen Kumar also got out cheaply at the score of 8 and 1, respectively. But Eklavya Dwivedi and Dhawal Kulkarni scored some crucial runs in the end.
Dwivedi scored 19 runs off 9 deliveries, and Dhawal Kulkarni smashed 10 runs off 4 balls, which helped the Gujarat Lions finish their innings with a score of 158. However, the team lost all of its wickets during this process, as the RCB bowlers were able to get the upper hand in the game. Shane Watson was the most dominant bowler in the first innings, taking 4 wickets for the team, as Dwayne Smith decided to take things either way for the Gujarat Lions with his magnificent half-century.
The second innings was set to be a thriller, as the RCB fans anticipated Kohli to dominate against Gujarat once again in a similar way to how he and AB de Villiers did in the league stage clash. However, Gujarat Lions had some different plans, which put the RCB fans on the edge of their seats. Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle came out to open for the team, aiming to chase down the target of 159 as soon as possible.
Dhawal Kulkarni came down as a nightmare for the top order of Royal Challengers Bangalore, taking the wickets of Virat Kohli (0 runs off 2 balls), Chris Gayle (9 runs off 12 balls), KL Rahul (0 runs off 1 ball), and Sachin Baby (0 runs off 3 balls). With these quick wickets falling, the hopes of the team to chase down the total also went down to a great extent. With Sachin Baby’s wicket, RCB stood at the score of 29 runs for the loss of 5 wickets, and it seemed like Gujarat Lions had almost won the game.
Just when Gujarat thought they had removed all the obstacles and were now on a clear road to the finals, there stood one man in the way of the team, Abraham Benjamin de Villiers. With the top order struggling to perform well, AB de Villiers stood down as the root of the team’s win, receiving the much-needed support from the other end from Stuart Binny at the start. Binny played a rapid innings for the team but got dismissed at the score of 21 runs off 15 deliveries against Jadeja.
Iqbal Abdulla also played one of the most underrated innings in the IPL qualifier, giving the much-needed assistance to AB de Villiers. They had an unbeaten partnership for the 7th wicket, which allowed Royal Challengers Bangalore to win the game by 4 wickets. AB de Villiers scored 79 runs off 47 deliveries with 5 fours and 5 sixes, and Iqbal Abdulla also ended with 33 runs off 25 deliveries. With his prolific innings coming for the team at a needed time, AB de Villiers won the Player of the Match award, and RCB reached the IPL 2016 finals.