Here is why Rutherford’s 40-ball-28 was a cricketing masterclass

Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to surpass Kolkata Knight Riders in a thrilling encounter that saw both sides producing some excellent bowling efforts with their batters flailing in front of some insane swing that was up for grabs at DY Patil last night.

Chasing 128, RCB lost their top three in very quick succession as Anuj Rawat, Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli couldn’t rack up something significant. With the Challengers teetering at 17 for 3, two unlikely names, David Willey and Sherfane Rutherford were shouldered with the onus of ushering them to the finishing line.

The first and foremost need of the hour was a partnership that would span for 30 to 40 odd runs in stabilizing the ship. That is exactly where Rutherford came in. He was impervious to anything that loomed around and even the most irresistible deliveries were snubbed by the southpaw.

It took him 16 balls to bring out the first big hit of the night as Rutherford conjured a titanic six against Varun Chakravarthy to insinuate the first signs of an RCB comeback. Despite taking CV Varun to the cleaners, he was once again back to his defensive brilliance that would allow Shahbaz to do the talking.

By the time he was dismissed, courtesy of a stunning catch by Sheldon Jackson, RCB had already attained 107 and was very well poised to seal the deal. He got out for a fine 28 from 40 balls. Now you may say that how can this be a decent score in T20 cricket?

Well, firstly, this match was unlike the others where the batters would just walk away. There was a dab of green on the surface where the ball was drifting left, right and center. A single misstep was wreaking havoc for the batters. Add to that a crumbling batting order where the scorecard read 17 for 3 and Umesh Yadav breathing fire.

If you put them all together, another wicket in quick succession would have ended the game for RCB. They needed someone who could defend and play an anchoring knock wherein given a low target, a few big hits towards the end would do the trick. That is exactly what happened in the game.

Sherfane Rutherford’s 40-ball-28 was a cricketing masterclass where he displayed his resolute persistence to hang in and take RCB to the gateway of their opening win. Probably with Glenn Maxwell, Hazlewood, and Behrendorff coming in, he would not be making the opening line-up but the cricketing nous that he displayed in the face of an invasive KKR is a burning ode to his bedazzling brilliance.

A late blitzkrieg from Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed sealed the tie for KKR but had it not been for Sherfane’s dogged resilience in the middle, it could have been a different end to the game.