The one man who pushed the Orange Army off the cliff during yesterday’s match was Royal Challengers Bangalore’s, Harshal Patel. The fate of the 6th match of IPL 2021 between RCB and Sunrisers Hyderabad was decided in the last over when SRH just slid down the field and gifted their wickets to their rivals to fall short by six runs to start their campaign with back-to-back defeats.
However, the single no-ball in the last over could have turned the game to Hyderabad’s favour with Rashid Khan at the crease. 13 runs were required off 4 balls, Harshal Patel bowled a waist-high full toss to Khan replicating his similar mistake from the 18th over. However, the Afghan maestro failed to make full use of the delivery.
A similar mistake made SRH’s captain David Warner enraged and he was seen gesturing to the 4th Umpire asking why the bowler was not taken out of the action despite committing the offence twice. According to the rules, a bowler is taken out of action if he/she bowls two dangerous no-balls. But Patel’s first no-ball was down the leg side. Hence it was not considered as an offence in the 18th over but the last one in the final over was a dangerous no-ball.
Why was Harshal Patel allowed to bowl after two beamers?
After taking 2 wickets yesterday and 5 in RCB’s first match against Mumbai Indians, Harshal Patel now holds the purple cap. Speaking of the two beamers, the cricketer, who joined Royal Challengers Bangalore from Delhi Capitals said that the ball slipped out of his hands due to excessive sweat. However, he doesn’t want to come up with excuses and vouched that he will not repeat the same mistakes again.
“I was sweating and the sweat came on the palms. But obviously, it’s not an excuse. These things shouldn’t happen, they are basic mistakes. They shouldn’t happen in pressure situations, and I’ll try and make sure it doesn’t happen next time,” Harshal Patel said after yesterday’s victory.
