A de Villiers ... routine?
AB de Villiers, 55(22) [+4.2] overcame a combined handicapping effort led by Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal and Gurkeerat Singh to chase down Rajasthan Royal’s 177 today. de Villiers received a significant assist from the Rajasthan Royals bowlers who required 130 deliveries to complete 118 legal ones.
RCB’s chase proceeded with a noticeable disregard for the asking rate. They were 64/1 after 9 overs, and despite scoring 13 from the 10th over, added only a further 15 from the next two to find themselves at 92/1. Padikkal and Kohli seemed unable to decide who should take chances. They both should have. Eventually they were dismissed off consecutive deliveries. This was probably a mistake on Rajasthan’s part as keeping Kohli and especially Padikkal in seemed a sure way of ensuring that RCB fell further behind the asking rate.
Kohli made 42 in 31 balls for a misbah score of -13.9. Padikkal’s 35 in 37 came with a misbah score of -33.9. At 102/3 in 13.1 overs, RCB required 75 in 41 balls. de Villiers hit 7 of his 22 balls to the boundary (1 four, 6 sixes), and RCB won despite Gurkeerat Singh’s 19 in 17 (misbah -22.1).
The misbah measure is the difference between the asking rate at the start of each ball, and the runs scored by the batsman who faces the ball.
Given the rest of the RCB batting, it has required a genius to keep them afloat in the 2020 IPL. His four half centuries in this tournament have come from 22, 29, 23 and 23 balls. RCB have won 3 of these games and tied the fourth.
