Last Updated on 5 years by Charbel Coorey

In what turned out to be an exciting battle between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab, the KL Rahul-led side edged by 8 wickets. Not often does a side with 9 wickets in hand, until the penultimate delivery of the match, drag the chase until the last ball but such has been the ‘riskfree’ template of Punjab’s chases this year which has highly backfired in the first half of the tournament.

Against RCB, it was about to have repercussions as well if Pooran’s six had landed a foot inside the boundary rope. But although the bottom-placed side dragged the game to the final ball after needing 11 off the last 3 overs, 7 off the last 2 overs and just a couple of runs in the last over, the most talked-about point had already arrived over the course of RCB’s innings.

‘Why did AB De Villiers bat at No. 6?’ 

And if you think that was the only ‘tactical’ move which caused a lot of head-scratching among the fans as well as experts and commentators, you are wrong. RCB had two more decisions which baffled everyone. Firstly, to not bowl Washington Sundar in his preferred phase of bowling – the powerplay, and secondly, not to complete Chahal’s four-over quota.

And RCB weren’t the only team who took controversial decisions. KXIP didnt let Gayle open the batting as well.

All the decisions may leave you flabbergasted but let’s analyse what was the thinking behind the same, how was it countered by the opposition and also how did they eventually pan out and whether we can praise or criticise it in hindsight.

Sundar, Dube ahead of AB

The traditional thinking in limited-overs cricket is to make your best batsman and the most in-form bat for the most number of overs. Just a couple of days ago on the same ground, AB de Villiers scored a superhumanly 73 off 33 balls and batted at a strike rate of 221 when others did at 107. He has been RCB’s best bet for years in the death overs is their most in-form batsman as well. Then why was he held back until the 17th over as Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube batted ahead of him.

AB de Villiers against leg spinners since 2017:

• 25 innings
• 242 runs in 191 balls
• Average: 26.89
• Dismissals: 9
• RPO: 7.6

Stats credits: @_suddhesh

As the numbers suggest that AB de Villiers, for a change, has been human while playing the wrist spinners and has been below par. While his numbers in the death overs (17-20 overs) since the 2017 season have been extraordinary, to say the least.

AB De Villiers in the death overs since IPL 2017

• 334 runs
• 130 balls
• 5 dismissals
• Strike rate: 256.92
• Average: 66.8

What RCB tried to do was shield AB against KXIP’s wrist spinners, Ravi Bishnoi and Murugan Ashwin; the latter had already dismissed the Protea when the two teams met earlier in the season. But, Sundar and Shivam Dube scored 36 off 33 balls collectively as they failed to get going and the purpose of the move wasn’t served and skipper Virat Kohli admitted it in the post-match chat.

‘We had a chat, it (AB batting at no. 6) was a message about the left-hand, right-hand combination. Sometimes these decisions you take, don’t come off. But I think 170 was a decent score. That’s the idea, get your eye in and start hitting. But we were not able to put them under pressure.’

If AB had walked into to bat in the 15th over and then took advantage of KXIP’s prime weakness, death bowling, this move might have been praised highly in hindsight.

But KXIP has to be praised for their right-thinking as well. Sundar and Dube could have attacked the leg spinners with relative ease and hence Rahul decided to take four overs out of his 6th bowler, Glenn Maxwell who is off-spinner. RCB skipper Virat Kohli and the southpaws should have shown more intent against Maxwell as they scored only 20 runs off the three overs against the Aussie but KL Rahul deserves appreciation for completing Maxwell’s 4-over spell

Gayle doesn’t open; No Sundar in the powerplay

Before the match against RCB, his former team, the ‘Universe Boss’ had played just three innings in positions other than opener in IPL cricket. So, understandably, most of the conversations and analysis revolved around who among Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul would sacrifice their opening slot for the 41-year-old Jamaican. But as things panned out, KXIP persisted with their successful opening combination and asked Gayle to come at 3. Eventually, the decision paid off as they got off to a quick start as they openers added 76 runs in 8 overs, before Agarwal perished to Chahal, but not before he attacked RCB’s lead spinner.

Coming in at 3, Gayle had pretty characteristic start scoring 7 of the first 15 balls and then taking on Sundar, who didnt bowl in the powerplay to take on Gayle. In spite of having an economy rate of 4.55 in the powerplay in IPL 2020. Sundar was impressive in the first couple of overs conceding just eight runs, but has erred a bit with his length Gayle took him to the cleaners in Sharjah as he conceded 30 runs off his next two overs, 24 of which came from Gayle’s sixes.

No Chahal to Gayle

RCB’s tactics were not done yet. Their lead spinner Yuzvendra Chahal bowled only three overs, two of which came in the powerplay when both openers were at the crease. Ironically, his last ball in the first spell was a wicket and yet he was held back.

So did Virat Kohli miscalculate Chahal’s overs or did he pull back the treasured weapon against T20‘s greatest ever batsman as he would be easy to hit on a ground like Sharjah? The move backfired as well as Chahal conceded just 1 run off the first 5 balls of the last over and dragged the game to the last ball in spite of having only a brace to defend, but he was aided by the run-out and the pressure situation.

Written by Sarthak Karkhanis. Follow Sarthak on Twitter today.