IPL 2021: Padikkal’s century help Royal Challengers retain number one position in the Points Table

Match Info:

Indian Premier League– IPL 2021 , Match 16 was Played between RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore) & RR (Rajasthan Royals) on Thursday, April 22

Venue- Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Umpires- Sundaram Ravi, Jayaraman Madangopal

3^rd Umpire– Virender Sharma Referee- Shakti Singh

Rajasthan Royals to Bat

IPL 2021 Royal Challengers won the toss and elected to bowl first. With a bit of turn on the pitch Captain Virat Kohli decided to bring in pace attack in the powerplay, Mohammed Siraj And Kyle Jemieson together managed to keep RR under pressure.

Repeating their bad results in powerplay RR lost 3 wickets and scored just 32 runs of 6 overs. Mohammed Siraj took two important wickets, sending Jos Butler and David Miller to Pavilion.

RR desperately needed a partnership that was provided by Shivam Dubey’s and Riyan Parag’s innings.

Shivam Dubey a former RCB player played a crucial and controlled innings and with Riyan Parag’s other end support Rajasthan managed to score 178 after losing 9 wickets in 20 overs which was a respectable score to defend.

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Royal Challengers Bangalore to Bat

In IPL 2021 After Innings Break, it was Rajasthan’s turn to bowl, Devdutt Padikkal opened along with Virat Kohli on the other end.

RR had brought in Shreyas Gopal specially because of Virat Kohli’s and AB de Villiers poor record against him, but as the match began everything turned against RR, the left-handed uncapped Devdutt Padikkal played classical cricket shots and a terrific innings fearlessly.

Virat Kohli knew it was the youngster who took the charge, so he backed himself and played comfortable shots and rotated strike. RR bowling attacked collapsed as Padikkal and Kohli attacked, and without losing any wickets RCB easily chased down 178 and scored 181 in just 16.3 overs with Devdutt Padikkal scoring a 101* and Captain Kohli 72*

This added up to RCB’s 4^th victory in their 4 consecutive matches and still remained undefeated and as well as jumped to number one position with net run rate of +1.009, pushing CSK (Chennai Super Kings) to number 2 in the points table.

The Winning captain:

Virat Kohli: It was an outstanding innings. Dev batted well. He deserved to get the three-figure mark. There is a lot to talk about for him not accelerating that much after getting to 30+ or 40+. He has put all that to rest.

We spoke about it (on the 100) He told me to finish it off, I told him to get to it first. He said many will come, I said yea you can say that after you get to the landmark. It was a good pitch to bat on honestly. Regarding bowling I would say that we do not have any standout names, but we have effective one’s. We have taken wickets in depth overs, so it is something to take pride on.

Devdutt Padikkal | PLAYER OF THE MATCH

It has been special. I could only wait for my turn. IPL 2021 When I was down with Covid, all I was thinking of was to come here and play the first match here. I could not do that but was keen to contribute to my teams win. The wicket was really coming very good, and we got a good start. When u get into a partnership like that it helps as u get runs from both ends.

(Whether you were worried about the 100). Not really, that is what I was telling Virat to go for it. For me it is not about getting a 100, I would not mind missing a Hundred as long as I contribute to my teams win. Throughout the innings there were times when he was going better and then I was going better. Rotation of strike is important. We just clicked well.

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