IPL 2018 Report Card: Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh score Perfect Ten; Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers fail to impress

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)  further reduced their chances of qualifying for the playoffs with a dismal batting performance against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Pune on Saturday. Winning the toss, CSK skipper MS Dhoni chose to field first, and his bowlers didn’t let their skipper down by restricting RCB to 127/9. Ravindra Jadeja’s spell of 3/18, including the wicket of RCB skipper Virat Kohli, set Bangalore outfit on the backfoot from the beginning. He was ably supported by Harbhajan Singh,  who returned with bowling figures of 2/22, that included the scalp of AB de Villiers. [caption id=“attachment_4457511” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Ravindra Jadeja picked up three wickets against RCB on Saturday. AFP[/caption] Tim Southee tried his best to get his team to a respectable total with an unbeaten knock of 36 runs. However, the total of 127 runs didn’t prove enough. Umesh Yadav, Colin de Grandhomme and Murugan Ashwin tried gamely with the ball, but Dhoni hit Yuzvendra Chahal for 20 runs in the 18th over to seal CSK’s win. Let us now have a look at how all the 22 players fared in the match. 10/10 Ravindra Jadeja The Saurashtra player came up with his best performance of the season, returning with bowling figures of 3/18 in his four overs. He varied his pace well, and kept the batsmen in check throughout his spell. His victims included Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli and Mandeep Singh. Harbhajan Singh The experienced off-spinner bowled well in tandem with Jadeja and returned bowling figures of 4-0-22-2. He was neither afraid to flight the ball nor did he fear to bowl the faster and flatter ones. Both his wickets, that of AB de Villiers and Murugan Ashwin, came off stumpings. The value that he is adding to this Super Kings bowling line-up is immense. 9/10 Umesh Yadav Umesh Yadav once again turned out to be the man to provide Bangalore with the early breakthroughs. He bowled a terrific delivery to get rid of Shane Watson in his first over and then claimed the wicket of Suresh Raina. Moreover, he didn’t allow the batsmen to free their arms with his tight lengths and the swing he extracted from the conditions. He ended up with bowling figures of 3-0-15-2 but it still wasn’t enough to defend that total. MS Dhoni Just when it was looking like Chennai were making a mess of their small run chase, skipper MS Dhoni ensured that the fans didn’t need to worry while he was still at the crease. He took the game deep and then launched an assault on Yuzvendra Chahal in the 18th over in which he hit him for three sixes. He remained unbeaten on 31 runs off just 23 deliveries and his innings was of utmost importance in the context of the game. 8/10 Parthiv Patel It could have been a memorable debut for the Gujarat southpaw in RCB colours if the rest of the players could have backed up his half-century. Parthiv showed superb timing and wristwork as he played shots all across the ground. Although wickets kept tumbling at one end, Parthiv maintained the flow of runs at the other. He struck five boundaries and two sixes in his 40-ball knock of 53. However, his promising innings was cut short by a soft dismissal when he was caught-and-bowled by Ravindra Jadeja in the 13th over of the innings. Lungi Ngidi The South African speedster continued his superb bowling form with yet another economic spell of 1/24 in four overs. The way he foxed Brendon McCullum with change in length and line in his first over, when the former Kiwi skipper tried to attack him by stepping out of his crease, was amazing to watch. He bowled tight line and lengths throughout his spell and didn’t allow any of the batsmen to get away. Colin de Grandhomme Grandhomme couldn’t contribute much with the bat as he only played a run-a-ball knock of 8 runs. However, he bowled four tight overs of medium pace in which he conceded just 16 runs and also claimed the wicket of the debutant Dhruv Shorey in the middle overs. He was hard to get away as he was clever with his variations. David Willey David Willey had an excellent IPL debut. He conceded just 24 runs from his four overs and also claimed the wicket of Colin de Grandhomme towards the end of the innings. He swung the ball early on and also bowled good yorkers in the death overs. 7/10 Ambati Rayudu Ambati Rayudu continued his rich vein of form on Saturday. His 24-ball 32 consisted of some classy drives, wristy flicks and pull shots played with brute force. However, all his hardwork was undone when he slashed Murugan Ashwin’s first delivery of the spell straight into the hands of the fielder at short third man. Chennai thus lost their third wicket on a score of 79 runs in the 12th over of their innings. Tim Southee If it wasn’t for Tim Southee’s unbeaten knock of 36 runs off 26 deliveries towards the end of their innings, RCB probably wouldn’t have been able to fight the way they did to defend 127 runs. However, Southee failed with the ball, conceding 30 runs in his three overs. 6/10 Murugan Ashwin Murugan Ashwin impressed in his second outing for RCB as he sneaked through three overs for 17 runs. Not only that, he also claimed the wicket of the in-form batsman Ambati Rayudu. He could have had the wicket of Dwayne Bravo to his name as well if Yuzvendra Chahal wouldn’t have dropped a sitter. 5/10 Suresh Raina Suresh Raina walked out to bat at No 3 when Chennai’s scoreboard read 18/1 in the third over. He combined with Rayudu to stitch a 44-run stand for the third wicket. Raina played some good-looking shots and looked well set to take his team all the way. However, he was dismissed by a superb catch from Tim Southee at long on boundary for an individual score of 25 runs off 19 deliveries. 4/10 Dwayne Bravo Bravo bowled two overs at the death and did well to concede just 17 runs. Moreover, once he got a reprieve, he held one end up with MS Dhoni when they were losing wickets at regular intervals. His assured knock of 14 runs off 17 deliveries ensured that Chennai crossed the line safely. 3/10 Shardul Thakur Shardul Thakur got just two overs to bowl on Saturday. The fact that he conceded 19 runs in his two overs was mostly because of some bad deliveries he bowled which overshadowed the good ones. Mohammed Siraj Siraj actually bowled two decent overs but still got smacked for 18 runs due to some of the bad ones he bowled. At times, he troubled the batsmen, extracting variable bounce from the surface and sometimes bowled the odd slower ones too. 2/10 Shane Watson Shane Watson played a couple of cracking shots on the off side in the first over of the innings off Tim Southee. However, he struggled later on against Yuzvendra Chahal who bowled a maiden to him and then was clean bowled by an excellent outswinger from Umesh Yadav. He walked back to the pavilion after an individual contribution of 11 runs off 13 deliveries. Yuzvendra Chahal Chahal turned out to be one of RCB’s culprits. Although he started off with a maiden over, he dropped an important catch of Dwayne Bravo later. Moreover, when CSK needed 21 runs off three overs, he leaked all of those runs in one over. He finished with bowling figures of 3-1-29-0. 1/10 Brendon McCullum Brendon McCullum played a nice little innings of 30-odd runs in the previous match. However, he was out to pretty dismal shot selection against CSK as he tried to step out and smash a short and wide delivery from Lungi Ngdi which was out of his reach. All he managed was to scoop it up in the air and the ball was eventually caught by Shardul Thakur at mid-on. Virat Kohli The RCB skipper couldn’t believe himself when he was cleaned up by Ravindra Jadeja while trying to play a late cut off a delivery that was darted towards his stumps. A straight punch off Shardul Thakur was the only glorious shot that everyone could witness in Kohli’s innings. He consumed 11 deliveries to score his 8 runs and was dismissed at a crucial stage in the innings. AB de Villiers AB de Villiers’ return after missing two matches due to illness didn’t turn out to be fruitful as he was stumped off Harbhajan Singh when he tried to reverse sweep the off-spinner only on the fourth delivery he faced. He contributed just one run. Mandeep Singh Mandeep Singh is probably the best domestic batsman that the RCB have. However, he failed to live up to the expectations against CSK. It was Jadeja once again who claimed his wicket when he gave away a simple catch to David Willey. A score of 7 runs made in 13 deliveries was all that Mandeep managed. Dhruv Shorey The debutant Dhruv Shorey didn’t have the best of outings as he managed just 8 runs off 9 deliveries batting at number four. He played a nice pull shot that fetched him six runs but ended up slashing a delivery from Grandhomme straight to the hands of Mandeep Singh at point a few deliveries later. Rating chart: 10-9: Excellent, 8-7: Good, 6-5: Average, 4-3: Poor, 2-1: Very poor