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Indian Premier League 2021

IPL 2021: RCB vs CSK - Shardul Thakur and his game-changing deliveries

Shardul Thakur dismissed AB De Villiers and Devdutt Padikkal in successive deliveries to initiate the RCB collapse

Shardul Thakur  [Source: IPL]
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Shardul Thakur [Source: IPL]

By

Anjishnu Roy

Published: 24 Sep 2021 7:24 PM GMT

When Shardul Thakur came on to bowl his final over of the spell in the IPL 2021 clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore tonight, he must've been facing the heat. Sure, they had lost skipper Virat Kohli but by all means, RCB were still cruising.

They had a set Devdutt Padikkal on the pitch who was on 67 from just 47 deliveries. The southpaw had taken the CSK pacers to the cleaners tonight. His knock included five fours and three sixes and accompanying him on the pitch was the great AB De Villiers. De Villiers is no stranger to Sharjah and he is certainly no stranger to launching balls into the stands.

Royal Challengers Bangalore were at 131/1 and had a more than decent run rate of 8.18. With four overs left in the innings, a score close to 200 must've been hovering around the back of their minds following the terrific start they got from their openers Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal.

Shardul Thakur, however, had other ideas. And he executed his role to perfection.

With his final two deliveries of the night, Thakur dismissed the dangerous and potent hitters in AB De Villiers and Devdutt Padikkal and completely changed the course of the match which eventually allowed CSK to register a comfortable victory.

The delivery to dismiss De Villiers was seamless in its execution and it managed to deceive the great hitter. De Villiers had smacked Shardul for a massive six just a couple of deliveries before but this time it was the Mumbai-born who was having the last laugh. The ball was bowled wider than usual and all AB could do was get a slice of his bat on to it and the ball ended up travelling comfortably to Suresh Raina's hands. He doesn't drop those.

In his very next ball, Shardul Thakur changed the length and pulled it back. Devdutt Padikkal tried to go for a high-risk, high-reward ramp shot in the final ball of the over and of Thakur's spell but the slower speed of the delivery tricks him. Ambati Rayudu took the catch inside the circle and just like that, Shardul Thakur had dismissed two of the three most dangerous batsmen in the RCB camp to put CSK back in contention for the match, one they eventually ended up winning.

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