IPL 2014 7th Season yester day match Yuvraj Singh was back to his best in his first match for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The Yuvraj and Virat Kohli partnership didn't have a happy ending in the World T20 final, but less than 2 weeks after that night in Mirpur, Swapping Bangalore Royal Challengers the pair made easy work of Delhi 145, helping Bangalore won by eight-wicket.
The bedrock of the chase was Kohli, who benefited from two let-offs in his 20s to remain unbeaten on 49. The pair added 84 in just 7.5 overs, nullifying the unbeaten 110-run association between Delhi's JP Duminy and Ross Taylor. Duminy and Taylor helped Delhi recover from a wobbly 35 for 4, but their efforts weren't enough to stretch Bangalore at any stage of the chase.
Parthiv Patel gave the innings a push with a positive 35. He charged down the track to the seamers, forcing the ball down the ground and pulling a six, off the left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, out of the ground.
Parthiv Patel gave the innings a push with a positive 35. He charged down the track to the seamers, forcing the ball down the ground and pulling a six, off the left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, out of the ground.
Yuvraj didn't look secure initially, taking his eyes off a short ball and hooking a boundary to fine leg. He found his groove with a flat six over long-on off the leg spinner Rahul Sharma and some wayward bowling by Nadeem gave Yuvraj the chance to pepper the leg side boundaries with his favorite slogs.
Jimmy Neesham fluff the simple of catches at short well leg when Kohli was on 23, and when the batsman had added one more, he was put down by Mayank Agarwal at deep cover. It was clearly Bangalore night as Yuvraj and Kohli closed out the chase with more blows over the boundary. Yuvraj managed his 1st IPL fifty in 20 innings and the smile was back on his face.
Delhi found it tough on a two-paced Sharjah pitch, struggling to get the run rate above five in the first ten overs. The loss of early wickets slowed them down. Agarwal fell top-edging a pull to square leg as the frustration to score began to build and Delhi were pegged back further when Dinesh Karthik and Manoj Tiwary fell for 0 and 1 respectively.
The strategic timeout didn't change Delhi's fortunes as M Vijay, who had made a start with 18, was bamboozled by the leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. At 35 for 4 in the 8th over, Delhi desperately needed a big partnership Ross Taylor and JP Duminy at a good clip to compensate for the sluggish scoring in the first half.
His momentum in the latter half was provided by Duminy, who unlike Taylor found the middle of the bat regularly. He lofted Yuvraj Singh for a six to the sight screen before scooping Dinda to the same area. Dinda was unsuccessful at the death yet again as he leaked 51 off his 4 overs. Delhi took 30 off the last 2 overs and 63 off the last 5 but in the end, 145 wasn't enough.
Player Of the match
Yuzvendra Chahal
Score Details
Delhi: 145/4 (20)
Bangalore: 146/2 (16.4)
