Follow UsKrunal Pandya has played most of his Indian Premier League (IPL) as a wily left-arm spinner who can come in the middle order and play sweet, short, impactful innings. That’s why it wasn’t surprising that prior to this game against Delhi Capitals, he only had a single half-century in the IPL, which came eight years, 11 months, and 10 days before in 2016 against the same opposition.
On the day, Krunal made it to the crease after Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were in much trouble at 26/3 at the end of the fourth over, and scored a brilliant fifty, helping RCB recover and remain alive in the chase.
In the first 28 deliveries of innings, Krunal had scored only 25 runs as he failed to find some rhythm in his innings. However, he kept the scoreboard moving with singles and doubles along with Virat Kohli and didn’t play rash shots to get out.
After that, he changed gears in the 13th over and smashed back-to-back sixes against Mukesh Kumar to get his innings and RCB’s chase going. He also sent Kuldeep Yadav out of the boundary in the next over to continue the onslaught he began in the last over.
Eventually, on the last ball of the 15th over bowled by Axar Patel, he played a sweep to get a boundary and completed his second fifty in the IPL that came after almost nine years.