Last over heroics: stormtrooper Shimron can't match de Villiers as DC lose

IPL 2021: Almost everything had gone Delhi’s way after Pant won the toss and chose to bat first, until the last over that is.

Plenty has been said and made of Prithvi Shaw’s resemblance to another diminutive opening batsman from the city of Mumbai. Yet, when Shaw smashed a new-ball bowler straight back down the ground for a screeching boundary – in the middle of a sandstorm that blew across a cricket stadium on a sultry April night, no less – it must’ve been hard for even the most cynical to not be among the believers.

Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell console Shimron Hetmyer.(IPL)

Momentarily. For, that’s about as far as Shaw’s connection to that special Sharjah night from 23 years ago went in Ahmedabad on Tuesday (apart from the fact that both Sachin Tendulkar and Shaw’s sides lost, narrowly). The Tendulkar of 1998 kept finding incredible ways to score big runs from impossible positions; the Shaw of 2021 – a year in which he has threatened to become more consistent – is still finding ways to get himself out. Well settled on 21, the young Delhi Capitals opener chased a very wide ball by Harshal Patel and was nicked out.

That wicket, incidentally, was already Patel’s 16th wicket for Royal Challengers Bangalore this season – in just his and RCB’s sixth match. When the medium-pacer had wicket No.17 shortly after in Marcus Stoinis, the burden of the chase was well and truly on the shoulders of Delhi Capital’s captain, Rishabh Pant. It was due to Stoinis and Pant that Delhi were chasing as many as 172 runs in the first place. Pant had earlier introduced Stoinis into the attack in the 20th over, and the Australian promptly conceded 23 runs to the evergreen AB de Villiers.

Now it was down to Pant to make amends by doing what de Villiers had done in the first innings – find that late surge. But even with the required run-rate mounting exponentially by the end, that surge simply didn’t occur from Pant’s bat. So much so that when the 18th over began, Pant was batting on a 39-ball 40, with no sixes thus far. Pant tried to change that with a premeditated paddle shot, but he only managed to tumble over and scurry for a single. Luckily he did, because it brought Shimron Hetmyer on strike.

Quite like Shaw and Pant, Hetmyer has already witnessed the great highs and lows of professional cricket at a very young age. But against his former side in Bangalore, he came good for the first time this season. In the 18th over, every time Kyle Jamieson missed his yorker Hetmyer managed to plant the full toss into the empty stands. Those runs would do wonders to bring the target down to 14 from the final over, but it just wasn’t Pant’s night with the big hits. With 10 to get from the final 2 balls, Pant hit two fours, got to his best score of the season (58*) and yet roared in despair. Such was this evening for him, where he lost a game by 1 run.

Almost everything had gone Delhi’s way after Pant won the toss and chose to bat first, until the last over that is. This choice to bowl first was admittedly made because of the dew-factor in Motera, and Pant’s bowlers backed him up with the dry ball. Especially Ishant Sharma, with the dry and new ball. Ishant, playing in his first game for DC this season, kept shaping the ball away from the in-form Devdutt Padikkal for his first two overs before bringing one back in with a leg-cutter to begin his third over. That got rid of Padikkal, and his off-stump.

Padikkal’s wicket, in fact, was brought about a ball after the downfall of his opening partner in Virat Kohli. Kohli looked visibly annoyed after having chopped Avesh Khan on to his stumps, and when that was immediately followed up by Ishant’s wicket-maiden (Glenn Maxwell played out the five dots, believe it or not), RCB were in early trouble. But in walked de Villiers at the fall of Maxwell’s wicket in the ninth, and Bangalore’s innings instantly looked healthier by his mere presence at the crease.

De Villiers and Rajat Patidar rebuilt the RCB innings, single by quick single – and, of course, the odd six here and there. In the 15th over and then in the 18th, de Villiers slapped big ones off Axar Patel (straight over his head) and Kagiso Rabada (heaved over midwicket) respectively -- but both those strikes were nullified by wickets at the other end. After the 19th over finished, with RCB on 148, it looked like even the great AB wouldn’t be able push his team’s total a whole lot further.

But then Pant turned to Stoinis for the 20th. Three sixes and two hard run doubles stormed de Villiers to 75, and his team to an above-par 171. Then, just as they walked off, the other storm hit.