Agarwal’s dismissal at deep midwicket increased the pressure, shifting the momentum of the game. Explaining the decision to take a chance, Agarwal told host broadcaster Star Sports, “Well, somebody had to take a chance, it was 18 balls 19 (needed) and you know we were thinking if we can get two big hits, we should be through. But I guess we didn’t pull it off.”
Subsequently, two quick wickets fell, and as the 20th over commenced, Kings XI required 11 runs, with Sam Curran facing the experienced Mohammad Nabi for his first ball. Meanwhile, Rahul, at the other end, was cautious of the ball “skidding through” due to the dew.
“It was simple, he had to look for the boundaries. But I did tell him that maybe hitting sixes was a bit difficult because the ball kept skidding through and you couldn’t get elevation,” Rahul said. “So I said, ‘look to hit the pockets, maybe get fours’, because we’re not too far behind, we don’t need 16 or 17 runs, we just need 11. He came out, still tried to hit a six, luckily for us went in the gap, scored a few twos and (I) could strike that boundary at the end.”
The game concluded, yet some would argue that it was decided much earlier, within the first ten overs of the match. R Ashwin elected to field first, considering the impending dew, which resulted in Sunrisers managing just 50 runs in the initial half of their innings. A significant contribution to this was mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman removing the in-form Jonny Bairstow in his first over, the second of the innings.
Prior to the game, Ashwin had admitted his preference to lose the toss, but considering the conditions, he acknowledged that winning the toss proved advantageous.
“Maybe it’s a good toss to win but in hindsight, I think we also defended most of the games playing in Mohali,” he told his team-mate Rahul on iplt20.com. “I genuinely wanted to lose the toss today but as soon as I landed at the ground today I thought the wicket was a bit tacky so it was a good toss.”
He also expressed that the nail-biting finish was too intense for him to handle. “I had my heart in my mouth as well. Going into the playoffs if you said [we need] 11 runs to win off one over I’ll just sit little easy at the dugout. In this game it looked like we had it under wraps and then we lost three wickets together. It was a very close game. Too close for my comfort.”
“It’s very important with the dew that you do use the spinner with the new ball, and someone like Mujeeb has done it all through is career, he’s just bowled with the new ball for Afghanistan all his life. He’s very comfortable bowling with the new ball, so I thought, especially because of Jonny Bairstow up there, if he can get the ball to come in or bowl the googly it was a good match-up.”
Warner batted throughout the innings, albeit not as explosively, and Sunrisers concluded with 150 – “20 runs short because there was dew,” as per Bhuvneshwar.
Rahul mentioned that Agarwal’s approach assisted him in settling into his innings. “Mayank and I (both play for Karnataka in domestic cricket) have grown up playing together, so we have that understanding and we enjoy playing with each other.
“The way Mayank came out… throughout the six games he’s come out with a very positive attitude, even against Mumbai he did the same thing. So it gives me a little bit of time.”
However, on a negative note for Kings XI, Agarwal sustained an injury along the way. Rahul remarked, “Need to bring this up, he hurt his finger and I don’t know the extent of the injury but he came out and his top hand wasn’t, you know… he was in pain, so to play an innings like that was incredible.”
