RCB cruise to semis in the highest ever run chase of CLT20

Foram Gosrani 06 Oct 2011

Are we still having the hangover? Arun's SIX, Virat's josh, Dilshan's scoops. Team RCB just cracked it and how! The series of emotional ups and downs in 3 hours. It wasn't less than any movie climax either.

As it started, we again lost the toss. But this time it was the 4th toss that we lost. So it didn't matter really. But it did matter to our own Sidhartha Mallya. We all know that he is superstitious. And it was proved yesterday when he did everything exactly the same as he did in the match against Somerset. And as luck would favor, it worked! I have now increased my faith in these things too!!

Putting us to bowl first, SAR were on prowl right from the over. They were hitting the ball everywhere. Harris was the man for them. He didn't hit it too hard for sixes, but his fours looked so easy. A century in 18 overs made him the 3rd player in CLT20 to score a ton. Ferguson also added huge 70 runs to SAR total. Finally, at the end of 20 overs, SAR were 214-2, which was the highest ever total in CLT20 2011. But that remained highest only for an hour and a half!

While all of us were praying for Gayle-storm to strike (some us also wanted rains!! :) ) Dilshan quietly filled in the gap of huge runs with his astonishing Dilscoops! And when, SAR got out Gayle, I know 70% of us gave up the hopes of winning. (You cannot hide it from me, I saw the comments and tweets!!). But fate had something else in the plan!

The smashing, dashing and forever handsome Virat Kohli took up the mammoth task of scoring 70 runs in 36 balls. Dilshan stood steady at 1 end while wickets started to fall for our middle order. Tiwary and Agarawal hit a SIX and got out in the next ball. Every RCBian had their heart in their mouth. Then came in Vettori. Our captain who did excellent in the previous matches. Some relief. But it was immediately taken away by Tait. SAR had called Tait back for this match and his performance was excellent. Dilshan and Vettori were on crease and RCB had good chance. Tait had other plans for us. And he completed his 5 wickets howl by taking Dilshan, Vettori and Bhatkal down, 5 wickets howl in a match. He had almost taken the match from us.
The last over: Woot Woot! Aravind and Karthik on crease. Aravind hit a four because it was his way of revenge to Christian. 2 balls and 7 runs. Aravind could not connect it properly and it was a bye. That sent Karthik on strike. 1 ball and 6 runs? Karthik, who was playing the match only because AB de Villiers was injured. Every spectator was uttering prayers; eyes closed; nails biting, diminished hopes!

And what was that round thing that flew over mid-wicket? It was a SIX? It was a Winning SIX! And there we were. Jumping, dancing, hugging and singing! We chased the highest ever target and won the game by 2 wickets! Our hero was KB: who just knew that he had to do it, it was now or never!

Celebrations began! Virat, known for his prolific display of emotions, left all inhibitions behind and ran towards the pitch along with other members. He won MoM for his 70 runs! And for the fans, Karthik started trending on Twitter within minutes of that SIX.
All in all, it was a match to be remembered forever. I could see that SIX in my dreams.. While this was going on, I want to know what were my fans doing? What were their thoughts? Will share them….???