The penultimate ball of the penultimate over of the match. Umesh Yadav had his fine leg inside the circle, and Mandeep Singh stepped across his stumps to scoop the ball over the fielder. Deep backward square leg sprinted desperately to his right to stop the ball, but he had no chance. It had rained, and the outfield was a little slow, but this ball landed on a practice pitch and raced into the boundary.
Next ball, Mandeep skipped down the track and looked to swipe a length ball through mid-off. He ended up edging it to the third man boundary. In the space of two balls sprinkled with a fair measure of fortune, Royal Challengers Bangalore had gone from needing 20 to win from eight balls to needing 12 from six.
Such things happen all the time in Twenty20, but this was a rain-shortened 10-overs-a-side match. Even Ravi Shastri, interviewing the losing captain at the post-match presentation, commiserated with him, calling it a “lottery”.
Mandeep, though, played a massive hand in deciding the fate of the lottery. He walked when Royal Challengers had just lost Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers in the space of six balls, when they needed 62 from 32 balls, and produced a stunning, unbeaten 18-ball 45 to power his team home with two balls remaining.
Kolkata Knight Riders
RV Uthappa c †Karthik b Chahal 23
G Gambhir c Mandeep Singh b Wiese 12
AD Russell run out (†Karthik) 45
RN ten Doeschate c de Villiers b Starc 12
YK Pathan not out 11
SA Yadav not out 0
Extras (lb 3, w 4, nb 1) 8
Total (4 wickets; 10 overs) 111
Did not batMK Pandey, PJ Cummins, PP Chawla, GB Hogg, UT Yadav
Fall of wickets 1-33 (Gambhir, 3.5 ov), 2-71 (Uthappa, 6.5 ov), 3-96 (Russell, 8.4 ov), 4-102 (ten Doeschate, 9.1 ov)
Bowling
MA Starc 2-0-15-1, VR Aaron 2-0-29-0, HV Patel 2-0-22-0, D Wiese 2-0-20-1, YS Chahal 2-0-22-1
Royal Challengers Bangalore
CH Gayle c Russell b Hogg 21
V Kohli* c SA Yadav b Russell 34
AB de Villiers b Chawla 2
Mandeep Singh not out 45
D Wiese not out 9
Extras (w 4) 4
Total (3 wickets; 9.4 overs) 115
Did not batKD Karthik†, SN Khan, HV Patel, MA Starc, VR Aaron, YS Chahal
Fall of wickets 1-48 (Gayle, 3.5 ov), 2-51 (de Villiers, 4.4 ov), 3-81 (Kohli, 7.2 ov)
Bowling
PJ Cummins 2-0-18-0, UT Yadav 2-0-31-0, GB Hogg 2-0-23-1, PP Chawla 2-0-21-1, AD Russell 1.4-0-22-1
MATCH DETAILS
Toss – Royal Challengers Bangalore, who chose to field
Points – Royal Challengers Bangalore 2, Kolkata Knight Riders 0
Player of the match – Mandeep Singh (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Umpires – JD Cloete (South Africa) and PG Pathak
TV umpire – C Shamshuddin
Match referee – J Srinath
Reserve umpire – VK Sharma
