IPL 2021: Devdutt Padikkal century sinks Royals in record chase

A few incredible things happened when Devdutt Padikkal simply swivelled his hips like a golfer and planted a delivery by the wily Mustafizur Rahman over the square leg fence. One: that six had taken Padikkal to 79, from just 35 balls–already the young man’s highest IPL score. Two: those runs by Padikkal brought up Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 100 before the 10th over of the chase; this, without the team losing a wicket.

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Three, and this is perhaps most important: non-striker and captain Virat Kohli would’ve known by this stage that his team’s unbeaten run was sure to continue, what with the Rajasthan Royals’ target just a meagre sum of 73 runs away. Even more significantly, Kohli would have known that in 20-year-old Padikkal he had not only found a bedrock opener for RCB but a real prospect for India as well. That’s how much of a dazzle the young phenom’s maiden IPL hundred was.

For the entirety of the flawless chase, Padikkal made the game seem like an exhibition match. And perhaps it was, for all of the Karnataka batsman’s shots deserved to be captured with acrylic colours on wide canvas. Like in the ninth over, where he twice struck Rahul Tewatia for majestic and consecutive sixes. The beauty of both was that they were completely shorn of violence. For the first he used his feet and got to the part-timer’s ball, smothered the spin and simply lifted it over Tewatia’s head. At head height, the ball pinged into a hoarding. Tewatia of course adjusted his line next ball, so Padikkal got down on one knee and helped the ball sail in slo-mo over the midwicket region.

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Even Kohli gleamed with joy. As he should’ve, given that in the first 105 runs for RCB, the captain had scored 23. Padikkal slowed down in the second half of the chase and Kohli quickly flicked up the gears to get to a season-best and unbeaten 72. He would’ve got more, but at the very end the focus was back to Padikkal’s hundred, which he got with a thumping cover drive off Rahman. Soon after, his side won with 20 balls to spare–truly a no-contest.

The word “contest” is often used interchangeably for a matchup in sport. But on Thursday night, the Royals camp would’ve, at a very early stage in the game, felt that the contest was all but snuffed out well before the match was. This was because in just the eighth over, captain Sanju Samson’s six-and-out (he bashed Washington Sundar into the upper tiers of the Wankhede Stadium, before offering a simple catch to Glenn Maxwell at midwicket next ball) had left his side in all kinds of problems at 43/4. On a pitch that had allowed 800 runs to be scored in two previous games, no less.

But in reality, the contest is never over till every last batsman has his say; even if that batsman is an all-rounder who hadn’t yet crossed an individual score of 27 in three editions of the IPL. Thus far, that is. Shivam Dube had been released by RCB at the end of the previous season, perhaps because he never did cobble together the big numbers. But Dube knows his home ground in Mumbai like the back of his large palms. And the powerfully built lefty put that knowledge to great use to bludgeon his side towards a total they wouldn’t have dared dream of when Samson had gotten out.

In the very next over, the ninth of the innings, Dube clattered Yuzvendra Chahal’s spin for two massive sixes. These were hits typically associated with all-rounders, both heaves directed towards the leg side. But Dube would use this innings as an opportunity to prove that he has touch-play too, albeit in a limited fashion. Anything floated wide or around off stump was guided to third man, some of these strokes carrying all the way to the ropes as a Kane Richardson delivery in the 11th over did.

For company, Dube had like-minded aggressors in Riyan Parag first and then Tewatia. Both put their wicked repertoires on display, but it was Dube’s dual-strokeplay that was proving to be most effective. In the 16th over, he clubbed his two favourite things–a big hit and third man–to put himself one slog away from a maiden IPL fifty. That wild hit got him out next ball, but it was enough to eventually give Rajasthan a total of 177. It would prove to be nowhere enough in the larger scheme of things.