IPL 2023 emotional rollercoaster: Avesh almost gets Kohli, Kohli hits one hell of a shot and Pooran smashes living daylights out of RCB bowlers

Harshal misses a trick
With 1 run needed from two balls, and Bangalore needing one wicket to push the game into superover, Harshal Patel pulled out before releasing the ball just as he approached the stumps. The non-striker Ravi Bishnoi had run out of the crease, backing up too quickly. But Harshal missed flicking the bails off – he had tried but he didn’t make contact and he kept running ahead with the momentum. His bowling arm hadn’t passed the perpendicular, which would construe he had completed the action and can’t run out a non-striker who has backed up too far. But another strange thing would occur. He had kept running on the wicket a bit too far. Bishnoi was still out of the crease a dance. Harshal turned around, and fired down the stumps with a throw and appealed. In the dance, Virat Kohli came running as well with his index finger up. The umpire, though, suggested Harshal had to complete the run-out (the mankading) in smooth action where you abort the bowling action but swiftly remove the bails. Harshal had run too far down the track.
RCB’s Harshal Patel tried to run out Ravi Bishnoi at non-striker’s end. (IPL/BCCI)
RCB still had the chance for the super over. Avesh Khan missed the next ball, and Bishnoi hurried across. He wouldn’t have made it to safety in time but Dinesh Karthik the wicketkeeper failed to collect cleanly, in his hurry to get ready to throw down the stumps. the time he collected himself and the ball, it was too late. Bishnoi was inside, and at the other end, Avesh Khan would hurl his helmet on the ground in relief.
– Sriram Veera

Outstanding demolition
When he was 8 year old, Nicolas Pooran would tell his teachers that he wanted to be a “professional cricketer”. Good things happened, he played the u-19 world cup. Then at 19, he was caught in a horrific car accident and when he came to consciousness Pooran’s first question to the doctors was: ‘If I could play cricket again”.

Fastest FIFTY of the season now belongs to @nicholas_47 ??
He’s playing a blinder of a knock here ????
What a turnaround this with the bat for @LucknowIPL ??
Follow the match ?? https://t.co/76LlGgKZaq#TATAIPL | #RCBvLSG pic.twitter.com/1oMIADixPh
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 10, 2023
Luckily, he bounced back, and has been entertaining audiences around the world. Like in Bangalore on Monday night when he smashed the living daylights out of RCB bowlers. He lofted, cut, pulled, picked-up, swung them to draction in a 19-ball 62 to put LSG ahead in the chase. He thwacked Karn Patel for 3 sixes, biffed couple from Harshal, and picked one apiece from Wayne Parnell and David Willey. It was an outstanding demolition job.
– Sriram Veera

Rahul’s strike-rate a headache
Any relevant early contributions from Lucknow’s top order in their opening four matches have come thanks to Kyle Mayers, and with him, Deepak Hooda, and Krunal Pandya departing within the powerplay today, skipper KL Rahul was needed to deliver.
Rahul’s poor form has led to questioning of his place in the Indian team in any of the three formats, but the criticism has been harshest in T20s due to his low strike rate in the early overs. Rahul did not help his case against Bangalore, displaying both a lack of intent and timing as he struggled to take off despite seeing Marcus Stoinis power himself to 65 from 30 with five sixes. the time Rahul was out, after labouring to 18 from 20 balls, the wicket felt like a blessing for his side, as impact player Ayush Badoni came to the middle to keep attacking.
– Namit Kumar

Harshal learns his lesson
Why did RCB bowl so full at Stoinis (30-ball 65)? When he doesn’t have to reach out, when he can recoil after the bowler releases the ball, when he can spring out to release the pent-up energy from his stance, he is at his most ferocious best. And yet, Harshal Patel and Karn Sharma served him gifts, until suddenly Karn dropped one short of a drivable length and away from the off stump, making him reach out. He ended up miscuing his lofted square drive to deep point. Until then after the usual quiet start for a dozen balls, Stoinis exploded against Harshal, who hasn’t had a good IPL thus far. A captain like MS Dhoni would pile on the pressure early at Stoinis, try to squeeze him in the first dozen balls until he begins to hit out. It still remains a good tactic at Stoinis but at least when he begins to open his shoulders, full half-volleys aren’t the way to go as Harshal found out.
– Sriram Veera

Avesh to Kohli, almost three years in a row
Last year, Avesh Khan dismissed Virat Kohli with a bouncer, he stood there and clapped vigorously. He would have hoped for a similar result this year as he slipped another bouncer. Pretty well-directed one at that and Kohli was in trouble with the attempted pull. But it flew off the top edge to the boundary for a six. Next ball, a length delivery, was lifted up and over wide mid-off. In Avesh’s next over, Kohli smashed a length ball on the up and through covers. In 2021 IPL too, Avesh had removed Kohli, who chopped on a delivery on the stumps. At the end of the game two would meet and later Avesh would say, “he told me that I bowled well and should continue doing this.”
– Sriram Veera

‘One (more) hell of a shot’ Kohli vs Wood
Mark Wood vs Virat Kohli has been a box-office hit for a while, in favour of Kohli. Couple of years ago, Kohli had bashed him for a 6,6,4. The first one was spectacular. Kohli backed away to the off side and thumped a shortish ball over midwicket. “Good players are allowed to do that. I said to him at the end of the over that, that first six was one hell of a shot,” Wood would say then. Today, Kohli backed away first ball again, but this time outside leg stump, and creamed him to the straight boundary. The ‘one hell of a shot’ this time was the six, off the second ball. It was a short of length pacy ball, but Kohli seemed to be ready for it: He stayed still and crunched it on the up over wide long-on.
– Sriram Veera

Daal diya Jalebi! Kumble on Amit Mishra
When Amit Mishra came to bowl to Virat Kohli, Anil Kumble was on air on Jio Hindi commentary and he called it correctly. “It will all be about the length”. And it was, Mishra slipped in a front-of-hand delivery that skidded on from back of length and Kohli holed out in attempting the big hit. Then came a lovely tossed up, really slowed up, ball to the new batsman Glenn Maxwell, who nearly holed out with an aerial square drive. “Daal diya Jalebi,” Kumble would add, “hit that”. Kumble would then narrate a lovely story about Mishra and himself. “Just before this IPl, I told him, ‘Mishy you ended my Test career’. Kumble reminded him of his last Test when Mishra told him to “come closer at mid-on” and next ball Matthew Hayden smashed one so hard at Kumble that he hurt his hand, and required 11 stitches. That was my last Test, I joked to Mishy.” Then came Mishra’s quip. “The story isn’t over. Mishra replied, ‘you lost me a wicket, bhai!’”
– Sriram Veera