Dwayne Smith brought the cover fielder inside the circle, leaving open enough space between long off and deep backward point for a Mumbai builder to construct a three-storied apartment complex with parking. It was a well-laid out trap. If the batsmen sliced his shot, the deep point fielder would be in business. Suresh Raina had stationed himself at cover, to nullify the uppish drive.
Smith, with runs and wickets under his belt this season, trudged up and bowled a full delivery in keeping with the field set. The batsman, sensing a scoring opportunity, crouched to get under the ball and went through with a lofted-drive.
The dulcet note of leather hitting wood in the sweet spot, a sound so often heard in succession with AB de Villiers's bat flourish, went missing and instead a spurious hollow noise filled the edgy Chinnaswamy Stadium. If the sound didn't give it away, the sight of Aaron Finch settling under the skier at long off froze the expectant crowd. De Villiers knew it, too. He had taken the bait. It was a horrible miscue.
The ball would either clear the rope or...
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If de Villiers didn't already know that this was a game unlike any other that the Royal Challengers Bangalore had played this season, one look at the player he was replacing at the crease and his score would have set him in motion. The law of averages had done the unthinkable. The inimitable Royal Challengers captain had recorded a nought in what was, at that stage, a below-par chase.
But, by the time Dhawal Kulkarni was done with the Royal Challengers top-order and his spell, the noise was taken off Bangalore's party. When the clock struck 11, cynically reminding the vociferous crowd at the Chinnaswamy Stadium about the pub capital's party curfew on weekdays, Virat Kohli's side were tottering at 96 for 6, needing a further 63 to score off the final six overs with only Iqbal Abdulla and the tail remaining to support de Villiers. A flash of lightning and drops of rainfall hitting the stadium roof exacerbated the hosts' predicaments, spreading a sombre mood around the stadium.
While the groundsmen assembled along the boundary ropes between overs in preparation of a shower, the Royal Challengers management sent out two of their non-playing squad members out in the middle with specific instructions. That they sprinted across the short distance between the dug-out and the pitch without even a bottle of water, towel or a fresh set of gloves gave away their intentions. Their messages could have well been displayed on the giant screen.
Raina had bowled out the excellent Kulkarni and a stingy Ravindra Jadeja. Dwayne Bravo, Lions' designated death bowler, had two overs up his sleeve, as did the wily Praveen Kumar. The math pointed to the obvious fact - de Villiers had two 'filler' overs to change the very course of the match. Belatedly, the screen flashed a second important message - Royal Challengers were 17 behind the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern par score at that stage.
And so, Raina handed the ball to Smith, his batting messiah of the night, knowing fully well that de Villiers would go after him and that in it lay Lions' best chance to dismiss him. The strapping West Indian did well to keep de Villiers off strike until the third ball of the over. Off the fourth, the batsman skipped out early, revealing his intentions even as the bowler was approaching the popping crease. Smith shortened his length but de Villiers adjusted to flat bat the ball down the ground to raise his half-century.
The crowd, which until then had been tethered to its seat, allowed itself a subdued celebration of the achievement, mindful of the match situation. An unperturbed Raina saw the opportunity to allow de Villiers to flaunt his off-side play and set about laying his carefully-formulated artifice, one that de Villiers realised he had fallen for, when he committed to that drive.
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A roar followed by a hushed silence... 35,000 people in the stadium and a few returning after the strategic time-out stopped in their tracks as the ball followed a projectile path. De Villiers held his follow-through, following the ball's trajectory, ignoring Iqbal Abdulla's request to cross over and complete a single in the hope of a drop. Batsmen and mathematicians know of moments when there are only two remaining possibilities. This was it. Finch would either catch it, forcing Royal Challengers's head of logistics to add a trip to Delhi to their itinerary, or the ball would tip over, bringing with it hopes of an additional day of rest. There was also a little matter of an IPL final berth hinging on it.
The ball, possibly propelled by the winds of change that were blowing through the Chinnaswamy by then or simply following popular expectation, just about evaded Finch's outstretched arms to settle on the sheets placed behind the boundary line.
And just like that, the smiles on the ground and the frowns on the field swapped places. Arms that had gone up in anticipation of a dismissal ended up clutching heads. The one big chance had come and gone, and AB de Villiers was still around.
"Virat told me to have a go at Smith, as there was a bit of bad weather around. There was that one six which just cleared the fence and I guess I got lucky there," de Villiers would go on to explain after the game. "I played just normal shots until that Smith over. I tried and assessed what's going on but didn't think too much. I'm never 100% sure. It's a fine line but I follow my instincts."
Those instincts went on overdrive after that reprieve. Shadab Jakati, called on to bowl the 15th over with the stadium now in a state of euphoric pandemonium, was disdainfully swept across the line for six. He conceded 16 and by the time Bravo came on to bowl, the reverse-sweep, the shuffle and the paddle had all made an appearance. The game was done with three overs later, but in hindsight, it was a foregone conclusion after that chance.
"I was sent a message saying we can be a little more positive with the rain around. I was thinking maybe 2-3 overs try and get up with the run rate again. Luckily, that gave us momentum and this crowd got us pumped up, we were never going to lose from there."
No, they weren't.
