During last year’s match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians; RCB fast-bowler Navdeep Saini engaged in a rather amusing face-off with the opposing team’s all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
The spark that ignited their fiery, albeit one-sided rivalry, started right from the first delivery of the penultimate over of Mumbai’s innings. Saini opened the over with a poorly-pitched full-toss; junior-Pandya brother didn’t pass up on the gift, and collected a finely-timed four. Second-delivery of the over- no-run- a spicy, 143.1 kmph delivery managed to restrict ‘Kung Fu’ Pandya well within his crease. Third-delivery- another pacy one, bit-lesser than the previous-one @ 137.4 kmph.
This time, though, Pandya decides to go for the kill; shuffles in his crease, takes stance, and hammers the short delivery over deep mid-wicket. As the ball sails into the crowd for a six, Hardik finally allows himself to soak in some of the glory. Pulling his hands behind his chest, Pandya bends backwards to exult loudly.
Saini, at the opposing side, didn’t seem to share the same amount of passion. As if mocking Hardik for his celebrations, Saini, all whilst agitated, came up with his own imitation.
A high intensity, highly competitive game ??#RCBvMI #VIVOIPL pic.twitter.com/ZCpYBvc5Nc
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 28, 2019
Match Summary
Despite the comical rebuttal, Saini couldn’t really make much of an impact in the match, and ended up conceding 40-runs in his 4-over spell. Meanwhile, Hardik finished his 14-ball cameo staying unbeaten at 32-runs, propelling MI’s total to a strong 187/ 8. Captain Rohit Sharma top-scored for the visitors with an innings of 48 (33).
In response, RCB started-off strong, finishing their power-play at 60-1. However, an incisive bowling-spell from the Mumbai Indians’ spearhead Jasprit Bumrah put the hosts in a spot of severe bother. Bumrah finished with exceptional figures of 4-0-20-3; his last-over yielded only 5-runs, putting RCB’s equation to 17-runs off the last 6-balls. RCB’s seasoned campaigner AB de Villiers almost managed to see-off the chase with his quick-paced 70 (41). But in the end, Lasith Malinga managed to hold on to his nerves, and helped MI register a 6-run victory at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Interestingly, field-replays later showed that Malinga had overstepped on the last-ball of his over; which stirred up several controversies about the umpiring quality of the tournament. RCB captain Virat Kohli even labelled the umpiring error as ‘unacceptable’.