IPL 2021: Axar Patel in his 10th day of quarantine, expected to join team soon

IPL 2021| Brian Lara and Matthew Hayden hail AB de Villiers after special knock

The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League started off with a bang as Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Mumbai Indians in a nail-biting tournament curtain-raiser by 2 wickets and in the final delivery of the match. Riding on a scintillating knock from the blade of Mr 360, AB de Villiers, RCB huffed and puffed to the victory target of 160. Hailing his special knock, former cricketing stalwarts Matthew Hayden and Brian Lara showered praises on the modern great in the post-match show on Star Sports. AB de Villiers was seen in action for the first time after the completion of IPL 2020 and the demeanour in which he played never made people believe that he had been out of cricketing action for a long. Lauding ABD’s knock, Lara said that the “Timeless ABD” delivered when his team needed him the most. “He is timeless. He has got the experience. IPL is the only form of cricket he is playing at the moment. I suppose he is keeping fit and ready for it. At this stage, when they lost Virat Kohli, RCB needed him to come good. He was explosive at the right time; he controlled the game. He came in after Glenn Maxwell as well; he controlled the game and got them home,” said Lara. The innings from ABD was not all about brute force. He rotated the strike to perfection and never looked in any discomfort what so ever on a pitch that was not conducive for batting. The spinners were getting some turn from the surface and the slower deliveries from the fast bowlers were stopping on the pitch. Former Aussie opener and a legend of the game, Matthew Hayden marked out the standout point of ABD’s knock which was strike rotation. “Absolutely remarkable performance from ABD. No question. He had that presence of mind, just knowing when to go and when to hold back. But that most important thing is that rotation of strike that we saw and clean striking of the ball," said Hayden. Meanwhile, he also gave his opinion on where the defending champions came short in the opening encounter of IPL 14. “The mark of a great player is how they take on other great players. Jasprit Bumrah is one of the best death bowlers; he has been for quite some time in this tournament. But ABD went straight after him, straight on the front foot and those 12 runs in the 19th over is where Mumbai Indians came short,” Hayden further added.

IPL 2021 | MI vs RCB: What Experts said as Harshal Patel-ABD show dazzles Chepauk

The opener of an IPL season, hit by the pandemic, brought much-needed relief for the people as a modest scoring thriller was more than what was asked for. A match that see-sawed for the most part of it saw two heroes in Harshal Patel with the ball and Ab de Villiers with the bat. A movie is never complete just with heroes. There are side heroes, the supporting cast the villain and timing too. All the was supplied in equal proportions as RCB chased down 160 on just the last ball of the match to take decisive and more importantly morale-boosting two points. While Harshal Patel bagged a brilliant five-for de Villiers was there to guide the Red and Gold home. Captains' Viewpoints Reacting to the victory, Virat Kohli, the winning captain said, “It was important to play against the strongest opposition to test the depth of our team.” Saying that everyone got involved, everyone's got game time, Virat focussed on the bench strength of the team and how each player could be replaced by a like for like. Kohli, 32, got a start himself but didn’t look as smooth as he should have, eventually resulting in an innings, that looked more forced than a free-flowing one, as is expected from someone of his level. But instead of speaking on his approach, Kohli contested that it was the pitch that made the difference in the batting in the second half. “To be honest, the pitch was looking decent in the first half. I thought the dew might help, but as the ball got slower, the length ball got difficult to get away. It's not a ground where you can hit through the line unless the situation demands it. It's not going to be that momentum that you see in the IPL. especially in Chennai,” Kohli said, characterising the pitch that was offered in the opener at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. In the last six overs of the RCB innings, the team conceded only 39 runs and took six wickets. Harshal was the destroyer in chief in those six overs as he picked five of the six wickets to fall. Calling it the best six overs in their team’s history, Kohli lauded Patel, saying that he is going to be their lead death bowler going into this season. “Harshal is relishing the role. He is going to be our designated death bowler. Very confident about what he wants to bring to the table and as a captain you want someone with that clarity. In T20 cricket that's all you ask from the bowler.” “And the wickets that he got weren't fluke wickets. He actually wanted the guys to hit the ball where he wanted them caught.” The chase master then went on to describe how Glenn Maxwell almost changed the complexion of the game (39 from 28 balls) with his stay at the crease. However, it was AB de Villiers that did most of the damage to the opposition with his quickfire 27 balls 40. Describing his contribution, the Delhi born said, “AB is probably the only player who's so versatile and can do what he did on slow pitches today, so we have to understand.” Rohit Sharma, the losing captain (not often though, but mostly in the opening matches of the tournament) was proud of the way his team fought. Talking about their streak of losing the opening match and then going on to win the Championship, Rohit said, “Winning the championship is important, I guess, not the first game. Great fight, we didn't let it go easily. Although the score wasn't something we were happy, to begin with.” Young Proteas all-rounder, Marco Jansen bowled the last over and while defending just eight runs, stretched the game to the last ball, in front of someone like AB de Villiers. Praising him, Sharma said, “[Jansen] is definitely a talent we've identified. When you look at the situation with four overs left they had AB and [Dan] Christian, that's why we went with [Jasprit] Bumrah and [Trent] Boult.” In hindsight, according to Rohit, the pitch wasn’t that great and it is getting time to gel as a group. The 33-year-old believes that the team will and can bounce back from this defeat as always. Expert Opinion Experts were elated with the way both the RCB men Harshal and ABD overpowered the situation to take their team home. Harshal’s five-wicket haul was the first by any bowler against Mumbai Indians and people couldn’t stop going gaga over it. Aakash Chopra said that the 29-year-old Haryana fast bowler owned the game with his skill set. Apart from Harshal, what impressed people was also the way de Villiers took the team over the lines. Saj Sadiq, a Pakistan journalist was most impressed by the work ethics of the 37-year-old’s work ethics. Ace Commentator Harsha Bhogle was won over by two overseas fast bowlers in Marco Jansen and Kyle Jamieson, both of whom playing from opposite sides, displayed some quality death bowling. Jamieson was hard to negotiate, even early on. Washington Sundar being promoted to open was a decision beyond understanding for many including cricket expert and analyst Ben Johnson. Vikrant Gupta, a veteran TV journalist went on to praise Virat Kohli for rediscovering Glenn Maxwell this season by offering him the all-important number-4 spot. Gaurav Kalra, a witty TV journalist and former India Test opener and Punjab Kings batting consultant, Wasim Jaffer were at their usual best as well. In the next affair, Mumbai would look to turn the tide around against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 13, while RCB would take on arch-rivals Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Deccan derby on April 14.

IPL 2021 | MI vs RCB: Harshal Patel and the six balls that changed the game

Wicket, Wicket, dot, Wicket, dot, a run and a run out on the last ball. The batsmen dismissed include the names like Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard and Marco Jansen, all proven hitters of a white ball. This was the last over bowled by, not Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah or Kagiso Rabada, but one uncapped Indian all-rounder, more known for his late order hitting than his death over bowling- Harshal Patel. When Delhi Capitals traded Patel and Daniel Sams to Royal Challengers Bangalore last season in exchange for money, little would they have thought that the Haryana pacer would go on to create history in the very first game of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League. Not only did Patel concede just a single run and picked up three wickets ( a total of four fell in the over), but went on to claim five wickets in the entire match, ending with figures of 5-27. This came after he was taken off the spell after bowling his first over where he had leaked 15 runs. This is the third-best figure for an uncapped Indian in an IPL game, only below Ankit Rajpoot’s 5/14 vs SRH (2018 playing for KXIP) and Varun Chakravarthy’s 5/20 vs DC (2020 playing for KKR). Turning the tides: Death bowling an unlikely hero for RCB RCB have been one of the teams in the IPL who have been dismal at the death for a long, long time now. For instance, in the games that went to the last five (in total 12 out of 16 games), Virat Kohli’s death bowlers conceded 52 runs per match. In this match, however, it was the death bowling that turned the tides in the favour of the Red and Gold. Patel was so impressive in the final few overs conceding only 12 runs in the three that he bowled, that he forced his captain to confess during the post-match interview that RCB are looking at him as the main death bowler this season. Patel also got out Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya, two of the most dangerous men that Mumbai possesses in the death overs. By all means, the all-rounder single-handedly overpowered Rohit Sharma’s men. Him scoring the winning run was just the cherry topping on an already delicious cake. The Jamieson effect It wasn’t only Patel that impressed at the death. Kyle Jamieson, the latest import to the RCB ranks, landing straight from New Zealand was a revelation in himself as well. Doubts were cast over his ability to bowl yorkers and he ended them like a boss, breaking Krunal’s bat with toe crushing jammer in the blockhole. The 26-year-old also impressed at the beginning and bowled in the middle to break the all-important Chris Lynn-Suryakumar Yadav partnership as well. Conceding only 27 in your first IPL game is an achievement and a half by all sorts of imagination, especially against a batting line up like that of MI. Siraj's coming of age Mohammed Siraj, ever since his Australia tour has been a different bowler altogether. The confidence that he got by bowling and almost leading the pack in absence of the likes of Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma, gave the Hyderabad bowler a sense of responsibility and he seems to be enjoying that even now. The senior-most fast-bowler in the RCB lineup that played yesterday, Siraj showed perseverance and also signs of maturity as he realised his potential, bowling upfront and being economical. In four overs he went for just 22 runs, including the seven runs that he conceded in the death over (17th). The 27-year-old being able to start well has also forced Kohli to not overuse Washington Sundar upfront. The trio of fast bowlers with Sams yet to join, most likely in place of Dan Christian makes the RCB line-up look surprisingly dangerous, probably for the first time in their IPL history. It was even echoed by their captain when he said that these were the best six overs (the last six that RCB) of bowling he had seen from the men from Bengaluru. Now, will this last ball thriller win (by two wickets chasing 160), help the trick continue, is a question that only time can answer. But for now - Harshal Patel deserves all the credit and accolades that he is getting.

IPL 2021 | Hits and Flops as ABD-Harshal Patel hand RCB a royal start against Mumbai Indians

The first game of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League could not have scripted a better finish than the contest going right down the wire and ending on the very last ball. The Royal Challengers Bangalore were up and running in the chase of 160 runs before the Mumbai bowlers pulled things back picking up a cluster of wickets. The match got into a precarious situation and the RCB were on the verge of losing the opening encounter of the season. However, AB de Villiers had other ideas and he produced a gem of an innings to take the Bangalore-based franchise over the finishing line. Earlier, Royal Challengers bowlers too were rescued from an onslaught by Mumbai’s middle order as Harshal Patel broke their back with a maiden five-wicket haul against the five-times IPL champions Mumbai. Here, we dissect the best and worst performances that turned the course of the game between the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Hits AB de Villiers AB de Villiers is inevitable. The former South Africa international came into the clash against the Mumbai Indians with a significant amount of time away from the game, but it was hardly visible in his timing. He walked out to bat in the 13th over when Virat Kohli was trapped LBW by his nemesis in the IPL— Jasprit Bumrah. At the other end of the pitch, Glenn Maxwell was going great guns and justifying his promotion ahead of the de Villiers himself. However, the partnership got broken just an over later and the onus fell on de Villiers’ shoulders once again to see the team out of trouble. By the end of the 15th over, RCB needed 54 runs with only Daniel Christian remaining on the other end as a batsman with the ball-striking credential. ABD could not afford to take time to get his eyes in and he hit the ground running against the leg spinner Rahul Chahar. Two half-decent deliveries from the spinner were dispatched mercilessly over the top through inside out shots and RCB were back in the reckoning. The task got steeper for him as Christian, too, fell quickly and all those runs were hard to come by as the Mumbai Indians had the luxury of two overs of Bumrah remaining in the kitty. With 34 needed off the last three overs, de Villiers made sure to make the most of the six deliveries Trent Boult had to offer. The very first ball was dispatched with a full-blooded gold swing of the bat over the long-off boundary. He took nine more runs off his next five balls and RCB were now cruising. By the time Bumrah returned for his final over, ABD was in cruise mode and two unreal shots off him to the boundary almost sealed Mumbai Indians’ fate in the opening encounter. First, he sliced the first ball of the over which was pitched just an inch away from the yorker length over cover while a short ball targeted at the ribs was guided nonchalantly past the keeper for the second four in the penultimate over. Having taken both Boult and Bumrah to the cleaners, de Villiers adopted a safe approach to close the game. But, the move backfired and he got run out in a bid to complete a very tight second run in the last over. The task of leading the RCB’s resurgence was complete, although he could not finish off the task on the first night of what promises to be another riveting season of the IPL. Harshal Patel Harshal Patel was traded to the Royal Challengers Bangalore from the Delhi Capitals before the auction earlier this year. The 14th edition of the IPL served as a sort of homecoming for the 30-year-old pacer and he has made a rocking start to celebrate the move. Patel could muster only five wickets across the last two seasons of the IPL before the Capitals ran out of patience with him. Before that, RCB had the same issues with him and it would seem that Patel has been baggage for his sides in the past. But, on the opening night of the IPL against the Mumbai Indians, Patel shed off all of the bad names he had earned in a 9-year-long career in the league. In a single bowling innings, Harshal Patel registered three records to his name. Bagging a fifer from his four overs, he became the first bowler to pick up a five-wicket haul against the Mumbai Indians, the first bowler to bag a fifer in the opening game of a season, and the only uncapped bowler to have taken a five-wicket haul. However, none of that success came easy as the start was as ominous as it has been in his career. Suryakumar Yadav was eager to take the game to him and his first over which was the eighth over of the innings went for 15 runs. Kohli took him off the attack and held him back until the end of the 15th over. He was confident enough to rely on his slower balls to fox both the prolific six hitters of the Mumbai Indians—Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya. Pandya was smarter and he waited on an outside off-stump delivery to hit him for four. Patel corrected his line while the mode of the attack remained the same. A slower ball which appeared a juicy full toss to Pandya dipped in sharplyfor the right-hander and he was found out embarrassingly in front of the stumps. With the ball slightly reversing in the air and he struck again in the next over to see the back of Ishan Kishan. Mohammed Siraj dropped a sitter to give the left-hander a reprieve, but Patel had another trick up his sleeve and a searing yorker that found Kishan wanting. An abysmal looking bowling figure of 1-0-15-0 was corrected to a much more impressive figure of 3-0-26-2. However, the night was young. He was assigned the difficult task of bowling the last over against the pair of Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya. Another disguised slower ball found Krunal holing out in the deep while Pollard, who is known for his muscling power against slower balls, too was guilty of playing his shot too early. Two big wickets in two back to back balls brought RCB’s nose in front in the game as the rookie Marco Jansen had the task of negating the hattrick ball. He could not but Patel was unlucky that a phenomenal yorker missed the leg stump. Patel, like he was doing after every disappointment in the night, produced another gem of a yorker to castle Jansen and register a much-deserved fifer. Harshal Patel would not have been a certainty for the RCB coming into the IPL, but he has made sure to make life difficult for Kohli going forward. It was a homecoming for Patel, and he made the most of the opportunity in the season of ‘work from home.’ Glenn Maxwell If ever there was an enigma in the game of cricket, and more so in the IPL, Glenn Maxwell has been an epitome of it. Having ruled the 2014 season of the league, he got serious investors looking out for the box office stuffs he promises, but only to be left bereaved season after season. He has been ridiculed for his non-performances in the IPL and when the RCB bid so passionately for him in the auction earlier this year, the move was laughed off as poetic justice for a team that has not been able to justify the potential, just like the man Maxwell. The RCB management has had other ideas though and the decision to bring in Maxwell was taken to take off some pressure from the Kohli-de Villiers duo, who have been in the perpetual scheme of things for the team. When Maxwell walked into bat at the number four position, the tactics of Maxwell in the team was clear. However, the setting could not have been more lethal for him as Rahul Chahar was introduced by Rohit straightway into the attack. Maxwell has had a torrid history against leg spinners and Rohit was aware of his miseries. However, the night turned out to be different for him. He started in his signature style by pulling out his reverse sweeps (can’t quite call it a sweep though) against Chahar. The leg spinner tried to be smarter and dragged his line outside the off-stump but only to find Maxwell an uppish drive over cover yielded yet another four. Rohit carried on with spin twins of Chahar and Krunal against Maxwell and the Australian was happily nudging them for singles for some time. However, entertainment was not far away and it arrived in the form of a monstrous hit that went as far as 100 metres and the monkey of not hitting a six for a long time in the IPL was off his back. In the following over, Chahar was once again reverse-swatted over the point and as the timing improved with every big shot, the ball landed beyond the boundary line. But, just when he was looking ominous to take the game completely out of Mumbai’s hands, he found the short fine leg fielder to walk back in a tame manner which has now become a trademark for Maxwell. Thankfully for the RCB though, he had already produced an innings of substance before walking back to the dugout. It’s not often that 17 wickets fall in a T20 game and wrist spinners don’t enjoy success but the opening game of the IPL 2021 turned out to be an absolute nightmare for leg spinners from either side—Yuzvendra Chahal and Rahul Chahar. Flops Yuzvendra Chahal Yuzvendra Chahal, along with Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, has been one of the mainstays of the RCB in the last many seasons of the IPL. However, his stars have started dwindling in the recent past with batsmen channelising his lack of skills in terms of spinning the ball. Chahal has been a wily bowler who uses the angle of both the bowling and batting crease while relying on subtle variations. In the game against the Mumbai Indians, Virat Kohli could not go to his go-to man in the powerplay—Washington Sundar as the opposition had two right-handed openers in Rohit Sharma and Chris Lynn. Therefore, Kohli needed him to come good in the powerplay as both Rohit and Lynn have been known to be susceptible against leg-spin early on in their innings. To Chahal’s credit, he started well against Lynn and troubled him big time. However, against Rohit, he looked to be worried about leaking big shots. He did not help himself by bowling on the leg stump line and Rohit was smart enough to pick his brains straightaway. He ended up conceding 41 runs from his four overs and RCB’s premier spinner is looking seriously out of sorts at the start of a very long and demanding tournament. Rahul Chahar Rahul Chahar conceded runs at an economy rate of more than eight runs per over in the last edition of the IPL. However, crucial wickets and a brilliant campaign for all other bowlers hid his inaccuracies with the ball for the entire season until the night of the final when Rohit Sharma decided to drop him for Jayant Yadav although the move was seen as a match-up game. On the very first night of the fresh seasons, Rohit needed him to come out with flying colours as Mumbai were not defending a lot of runs and the RCB batting line up had quite a few players with known vulnerabilities against leg spinners. But, to Rohit and MI’s dismay, Chahar appeared to be toothless and Maxwell attacked him from the outset to force him to lose his nerves. Chahar needs to make amends quickly or else the ruthlessness of the Mumbai leadership group will rethink their tactics on playing him with a rich bunch of resources available on the bench. The game provided a perfect platform for the new season of the IPL, but both captains will be honest to themselves if they will relook this game as the one where they allowed things to get out of their control from a seamless position. The Mumbai Indians had not won their first game of a season since 2012 and the record was intact in 2021 as well. However, they have shown the might and mettle to come back strongly after initial defeats. On the other hand, the RCB have had a tendency of faltering as the tournament gets deeper. Will any of that prevalence and reputations change in this season? Time will tell.