If the 50-overs game introduced the pinch-hitters and sloggers, T20 has acquainted the game with death-overs bowlers. It is the art of containing the batters in the final few overs of a match.
On Saturday, Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Yash Dayal produced one of the best death-overs bowling performances to deny Chennai Super Kings 15 runs in the last six balls, tieing down the legendary finisher MS Dhoni and securing a two-run victory in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Yash Dayal is one of the main bowlers of our team, a death-overs specialist. It was a clear-cut message to give him the last over. Last year as well, he did the same thing for the team and he did it again.
In the same match last year, Yash Dayal had done the same thwarted Dhoni, and helped RCB win the match.
With 15 required off the final over, the equation tilted dramatically after Dayal bowled a high full toss that Shivam Dube launched for six, reducing the equation to six off three balls.
But the 26-year-old held his nerve, and bowled three perfect yorkers to keep CSK down to just four runs. Dayal finished with figures of 2 for 36 as Chennai Super Kings ended with 211/5 in 20 overs in response to 213/5 by RCB.
The victory – RCB’s sixth in a row – took them to 16 points and closer to a spot in the playoffs. It also marked a historic moment: for the first time ever, RCB completed a league double over CSK in the IPL.
It was a match in which RCB were in trouble a couple of times. Debutant Jacob Bethell and the ever-dependable Virat Kohli put up 71 runs in the power-play, with Bethell smashing a 28-ball fifty and Kohli bringing up his 62nd IPL half-century.
The latter’s knock also took him past 500 runs this season and reclaimed the Orange Cap. Kohli’s 50 against CSK further extended his record as the leading run-scorer against a single IPL franchise – now beyond 1,150 runs.
After Bethell (55 off 33) and Kohli (62 off 33) had got out with 121/2 in the 12th over, CSK fought back to reduce them to 154/4 in the 17th over. With skipper Patidar (11 off 15) getting out with the score 157/5 in the 18th over, it looked like they may reach around 180 or 190.
But Romario Shepherd used brute-force to launch a ferocious attack in the last three overs to score a stunning 53 not out in 14 balls to take them past 200 runs.
Walking in with RCB stuttering at 157/5 in the 18th over, Shepherd tore apart CSK’s vaunted death bowling. His 14-ball 50 – the joint second-fastest in IPL history – lifted the hosts to a daunting 213/5, their highest total at home this season.
In the 19th over, Shepherd hammered Khaleel Ahmed for 33 runs – four sixes, a no-ball, and a four and the pacer ended with 9-65, the worst figures in IPL history.
Chasing 214, CSK reached a good position with 17-year-old Ayush Mhatre, playing only his fourth IPL match, bringing up his maiden IPL fifty off just 25 balls, becoming the third-youngest player to score a fifty in the league’s history. He eventually ended with 94 off 48 balls.
With key contributions from Ravindra Jadeja (77 not out) CSK reached 172/2 before Lungi Ngidi turned the game. He removed Mhatre with a well-disguised slower ball and trapped Dewald Brevis lbw the very next delivery.
CSK again fought back. Jadeja slammed a 109m six, and when M.S. Dhoni walked in after Brevis was out, he smacked Bhuvneshwar for a six to keep the hopes alive. But Dayal held his nerve against the legendary finisher and thwarted CSK from scoring the 15 runs and sealed victory for RCB as they moved to the top of the points table with 16 points.
Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bengaluru 213/5 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 62, Jacob Bethell 55, Romario Shepherd 53 not out; Matheesha Pathirana 3-63, Noor Ahmad 1-26) beat Chennai Super Kings 211/5 in 20 overs (Ayush Mhatre 94, Ravindra Jadeja 77; Lungi Ngidi 3-30, Krunal Pandya 1-24) by two runs.
