'A technical knock-out for RCB, SRH deserving winners'

The most deserving team won the IPL 2016 trophy. Led from the front by David Warner, the team lived up to its name and rose to the occasion in the finals. Even before that despite some setbacks they never seemed to lose their focus and their single-minded dedication to win the trophy was exemplified by their skipper David Warner who literally left everything on the field for each game he played.

His batting and his athletic fielding lifted the team to glory and he did that without too much help from the others.

In the bowling he of course had Ashish Nehra, who unfortunately got injured and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who won the purple cap for being the best bowler of the tournament and then there was Mustafizur. The 'Fizz' as the Bangladeshi was nicknamed, bowled the yorker to perfection and in his company Bhuvaneshwar Kumar also learnt and towards the end was bowling even better yorkers than the lanky left-hander. Above all, the fielding, despite the odd dropped catch, was always top-class.

When a team scores over 200 in the finals, it is an extremely daunting target, but Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli made light of it with their century plus partnership. But just when it looked that RCB would score the runs with an over or two to spare, Ben Cutting's slow leg-cutter did the trick as Chris Gayle’s attempted shot resulted only in a thick edge to short third man. Cutting had, earlier in the final few overs of the Hyderabad innings, cut loose to take the total over 200. Still with AB de Villers joining Kohli, it was RCB's game. But Kohli getting a little carried away despite having got 12 runs in the over was bowled and then de Villers followed soon after and that meant that the pressure was back on Bangalore.

Unfortunately, with young Sarfaraz Khan not being included in the playing XI for the last few games, RCB did not have the innovative batting that could have taken them over the line. They will also rue the fact that they bowled eleven wides in the game compared to four wides by the Sunrisers and those seven runs was the difference between winning and losing.

Be that as it may, it was one of the most thrilling finals in the history of the IPL and one which was thoroughly enjoyed by everybody. There was cut and thrust, punch and counter-punch and both teams were unwilling to bow down. You could say that Sunrisers won on points or a technical knock-out for the RCB were bloodied but unbowed even in defeat.

Source: PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT GROUP

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