Watson's gamble pays off in tense IPL win

The match in a tweet: RCB steal it! Shane Watson and Pawan Negi star with ball in final overs to restrict Delhi Daredevils in pursuit of 158 to win.

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The penultimate over: Staring down the barrel of defeat, RCB stand-in skipper Shane Watson took it upon himself to bowl the 19th over, with Delhi looking more and more likely to chase down the required 21 runs from 12 balls. The final delivery of Tymal Mills’ 18th over was launched over the fence by Rishabh Pant and the momentum was well and truly with the Daredevils. But Watson was composed, delivering good length balls that Amit Mishra struggled to make contact with, and going for just two runs, finishing the pivotal over with three dot balls and swinging the match his side’s way in a matter of six balls.

The gamble: After Watson had held the Daredevils in his last over, he had one final decision to make that would ultimately decide the outcome - who would bowl the final over of the match? Having exhausted the allotted overs of himself, Billy Stanlake, Yuzvendra Chahal and Tymal Mills, Watson surprised even the batsmen by bringing on spinner Pawan Negi to bowl the 20th over, and his first of IPL 10. To heighten matters, Pant had hit the experienced bowlers for a boundary and a six in his previous seven deliveries, but Negi held strong and delivered immediately, bowling Pant around his legs and then removing Shahbaz Nadeem two balls later. He finished with 2-3 from his one and only over, handing his side an unlikely victory.

The closers: The numbers reveal just how well RCB's bowlers did to pull off the victory. The equation for Delhi was just 51 from 42 balls when Watson started the 14th over of the innings, a required run rate of just 7.28 an over. But that required rate blew out beyond 10 an over as RCB conceded 5, 1, 8 and 5 from the next four overs, before Pant brought Delhi back into the match with 11 runs from the 18th over. But it wasn't enough, the Daredevils managing just 5-35 from the final seven overs of the match as RCB became the first side since IPL 8 to defend a total of less than 200 in Bangalore.

The comeback: Everyone at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium was stunned when Yuzvendra Chahal was turned down for an LBW shout against Carlos Braithwaite. The wrist-spinner delivered a superb leg-break that slid on and trapped the West Indian dead in front of off-stump, but umpire Virender Sharma said no with conviction. Chahal pleaded to no avail, understandably aggrieved with teammates rallying around the 26-year-old. But the cricket Gods might have been watching; Chahal delivering a more-flighted delivery the very next ball that Braithwaite tried to send over the fence, missing it completely and having his middle-stump rearranged.

The Aussie Pack: Shane Watson was the standout Aussie, scoring a run-a-ball 24 and taking Pat Cummins’ wicket alongside his match-turning final over. Stanlake was serviceable in his first IPL outing, taking some early punishment but coming back strong with the wickets of Karun Nair and Sanju Samson to finish with 2-29. Cummins (1-29) had Mandeep Singh beaten all-ends-up but couldn’t execute his trademark power hitting when Delhi desperately needed it, falling victim to Watson late in the innings.

The major contributors: In a low-scoring affair, both sides had one standout batsman that contributed more than a third of the team’s overall total. Electing to bat, a positive start from Watson (24) laid the platform for Kedar Jadhav (69) to launch, hitting five sixes and boosting the total to an eventually defendable 8-157. In reply, minimal additions from the Delhi top order left it all to do for Pant (57) who played with style and flair, hitting four sixes and very nearly dragging his team across the line.

The fallout: RCB will be looking for back-to-back wins against a victorious Kings XI Punjab on Tuesday, with Shane Watson indicating the return of both AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli is on the cards for that fixture. Delhi, meanwhile, will face the Steve Smith-led Rising Pune Supergiant side, with each team looking to avoid two straight losses.