Player of the Match AB de Villiers, meanwhile, comes in fourth behind Ishan Kishan
ESPNcricinfo stats team28-Sep-2020In a match in which each team scored 201 runs in 20 overs, the two players with the top impact numbers, according to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats, were the stars at either end of the run-chase: Washington Sundar went at three an over when the other bowlers in the match conceded nearly 11, while Kieron Pollard smashed 50 off his last 15 balls as the Mumbai Indians scored a scarcely believable 89 off the last five.ESPNcricinfo LtdThese impact numbers only include the 20-over innings of both teams, so the Super Overs don’t come into play in the calculations. Both Pollard and Sundar had impact numbers of over 120, with barely half a point separating them. AB de Villiers, who was declared Player of the Match, only came in fourth in terms of impact score, behind Ishan Kishan, who kept Mumbai Indians’ run-chase going when all seemed lost.Pollard’s impact numbers don’t need much explanation, given the extreme pressure he was under when he came in to bat. Even by his standards, this was an astounding performance: there have only been five instances of a batsman scoring more than 50 runs in the last five overs of a run-chase in IPL history. When taking into account the pressure under which he scored the runs, his 60 was actually worth 78 Smart Runs.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn such a high-scoring game, Sundar’s bowling performance was exceptional. No other bowler in the game went at under 7.5 per over, while the rest of the RCB attack all conceded more than 10 an over. In the Powerplay, against batsmen of the quality of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock, Sundar conceded seven runs in three overs, while the bowlers at the other end leaked 28 in three. As if that wasn’t enough, Sundar also took the key wicket of Sharma early in his innings, thus preventing him from playing the sort of destructive innings he often does. According to Smart Stats, that scalp was worth 1.47 Smart Wickets. Sundar didn’t go for a single boundary in his four-over spell, which was remarkable in the context of the entire match.De Villiers played a superb hand too in RCB’s innings, and also played a key role in the Super Over, which Smart Stats doesn’t take into account. Trent Boult rounds off the top five: his economy rate of 8.5 was well below the match rate, while he also got two key wickets of the RCB openers.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the end, RCB squeaked through in the Super Over, but they could have won this a lot easier if Pawan Negi had latched on to the chance that Pollard offered in the 17th over. Negi had pouched three catches earlier in this innings, but this miss almost cost them the match, as Pollard – who was on 15 off 11 at that stage – scored 45 off 13 balls after that chance (including the ball off which he was dropped, which went for a six). According to ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index that chance cost RCB 22 runs, as it estimates that the batsmen to follow would have only scored 23 off those 13 balls.Eventually RCB got the two points from this game, but that chance and the runs it cost them might still prove costly if net run rate comes into play later in the tournament.ALSO SEE: Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore live score, September 28 2020