IPL 13: Dube displays perfect finishing skills under de Villiers' guidance
Sep 28, 2020
Dubai [UAE], September 28 : What started as an aggressive attack at the top of the innings thanks to Royal Challengers Bangalore openers Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal lost steam in the middle overs as skipper Virat Kohli was dismissed cheaply.
But Shivam Dube rose to the challenge under AB de Villiers' guidance as RCB clocked 65 in the last four overs to finish on 201/3 in their 20 overs against Mumbai Indians at the Dubai Cricket Stadium on Monday.
If de Villiers was all about playing the mentor's role in the middle, Dube stepped onto the accelerator beautifully and went on to finish with three sixes in the final over of James Pattinson as they collected 20 from it. The final over not just saw the RCB unit finish on a high, but they also attained the psychological advantage with a 200-plus total on the board.
Coming into bat in the 18th over, Dube started smartly as he picked the singles and ensured that his senior partner got maximum strike and every time the MI bowlers erred even slightly, the former South Africa skipper was waiting to pile on the agony.
If Dube finished the innings in style, the stage was set in the 19th over when de Villiers took a six and a four from the Jasprit Bumrah over as the team collected 17 runs from one of the best death bowlers on display in world cricket at the moment.
Going into the last five, the RCB score read 123/2 and with wickets in hand, the stage was set for Padikkal and de Villiers to make hay. But while Padikkal was batting on 49, the fluency was somewhat missing and the senior Proteas batsman realised this and looked to up the ante.
But it was only when Dube joined de Villiers that the innings seemed to hit overdrive mode. While Dube finished with an unbeaten 27 off 10 deliveries, de Villiers had 55 from 24 balls.
While Bumrah's figures read 0/42 from his four, Pattinson stood on 0/51 from his quota of overs.
