Image Credit- BCCI
Ten runs are needed, with two balls left. On Saturday night at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the Chennai Super Kings’ formula was to maintain a higher net run rate than Royal Challengers Bengaluru in order to qualify for the IPL 2024 playoffs.
Ten off two was CSK’s formula in the previous year’s final as well, and Ravindra Jadeja had successfully applied it to help them win their fifth IPL championship. On Saturday, Jadeja was once more on strike. Could the past happen again?
Fortunately, not this time. With their sixth straight victory, RCB completed one of the greatest comebacks in T20 league history to secure qualification. Jadeja was denied by Yash Dayal, who produced consecutive swings and misses with a pair of nerveless slower balls.
After hitting 54 runs and making an incredible one-handed catch at mid-off to send Mitchell Santner back at a critical juncture in the chase, RCB skipper Faf du Plessis was declared the Player of the Match. However, Du Plessis believed that Dayal should have received the prize for his execution with a wet ball during the match’s pivotal moments.
“Obviously it got a bit close there… at one stage with MS [Dhoni] there, it felt like ‘oh dear, no! Don’t let it go his way.’ He’s done it so many times. I thought the way we bowled with the wet ball… we tried to get the ball changed a few times, but it was tough for the bowlers. For me, I dedicate the Man of the Match to Yash Dayal. The way he bowled tonight was unbelievable. That pressure at the back end for a guy who is pretty new to the role, he deserves the MoM.”
Du Plessis said he had asked Dayal to have faith in his slower ball during the final over, since he felt bowlers had struggled for control while attempting the yorker on the night. CSK’s fast bowlers sent down 13 full-tosses and their RCB counterparts six.
“I said pace off on this wicket is the best option,” du Plessis said. “Trust your skills, you’ve been really good, and enjoy this. This is supposed to be what you train for. So he tried to bowl the first one as a yorker, but the whole night the yorker wasn’t working, so told him to go back to his pace-off and he did that unbelievably well.”