Fiery Mandeep downs KKR in thriller

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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