Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated the Mumbai Indians by a commanding 18 runs thanks to fifties from captain Rajat Patidar, Phil Salt, and Virat Kohli in their Indian Premier League match in Mumbai on Sunday.
Tim David’s 16-ball 34 not out and the top-order troika of Salt (78), Kohli (50), and Patidar (53) led RCB to a massive total of 240/4, to which the star-studded Mumbai Indians replied with 222/5.
Impact substitute Sherfane Rutherford’s late and heroic 31-ball 71 not out with a barrage of sixes (9) helped MI avoid a crushing loss.
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Despite captain Hardik Pandya’s 40 off 22 balls, neither team was able to control the game, which finished well into the allotted time.
A top-heavy MI chasing 241 lost Rohit Sharma (19 retired hurt) to a right hamstring injury at the end of their lackluster powerplay, which produced 62 runs.
Rohit was replaced by Suryakumar Yadav, but MI was still unable to get the launch pad to chase down a significant score. Suyash Sharma’s two blows in the eighth over (2/47) left Mumbai reeling, despite Ryan Rickelton’s strong performance at the top (37 off 22 balls).
To the host’s dismay, Tilak Varma (1) failed again as Rickelton was defeated by the bounce and Bhuvneshwar Kumar grabbed a top edge at short third man. Tilak gave a catch to Jacob Duffy at short fine leg in an attempt to sweep the penultimate delivery.
Despite Hardik and Suryakumar’s teamwork, there was no counterattack. Despite a burst of fours by Hardik in between overs 8 and 13, MI failed to score a single six on a benign deck.
Rasikh Dar, to his credit, assessed the height precisely to secure a regulation grab at deep backward square-leg after Suryakumar’s classic sweep off Krunal Pandya sailed high in the air.
With a 4-0-26-1 record, Krunal was the best bowler for RCB. He mixed up his lengths with the occasional fast short ball that batsmen usually ignore, and MI was no exception.
When Hardik fell to Duffy after mishitting one to Romario Shepherd at deep third man, the contest’s outcome was almost sealed.
Earlier, RCB finished with a mammoth 240/4 thanks to half-centuries from the top-order troika of Virat Kohli (50), Phil Salt (78), and Rajat Patidar (53).
Patidar and Tim David (35 not out off 16 balls) played quick blows in the second half, while Salt and Kohli amassed 120 for the first wicket to put the defending champions in a strong position.
Kohli struck a flat six from Trent Boult over deep square leg with an amazing flip off the pads to start the RCB run charge. Salt, Kohli’s partner, took the initiative to increase the scoring rate while Kohli continued to pick the odd boundary. The Englishman created space early on to hit Hardik Pandya and Boult for boundaries.
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Mitchell Santner was hammered for three straight sixes after the New Zealand captain erred with his lengths, and Boult was dragged into the stands with contempt for a six. MI was compelled to bring back a wicketless Jasprit Bumrah for a second over during the powerplay because of RCB’s charge, which reached 50 in 4.2 overs.
Although the pace ace only gave up six runs in the final over of the powerplay, RCB still had the upper hand with 71 runs. In the eighth over, Salt took a liking to leg-spinner Mayank Markande and blasted three straight fours, while Kohli hit two more following Santner’s third delivery.
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In the 11th over, desperate for a breakthrough, the Mumbai Indians resorted to Shardul Thakur, who ended RCB’s opening stand at 120 by having Salt caught by Pandya at cover for the first wicket.
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Patidar nearly tied the record for the fastest IPL half-century, but ultimately finished it off 17 balls thanks to some mediocre bowling. He began by hoisting Shardul Thakur over cover for a four, then took advantage of some bad lengths from Markande to hit the leg-spinner for three straight sixes. Patidar quickly shot up to 34 off 9 balls.
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Mumbai used Thakur to bowl wide-of-the-off deliveries in an attempt to halt bleeding runs, but he frequently made mistakes.
Kohli was able to farm the strike and reach his half-century thanks to Salt’s early charge and Patidar’s blitzkrieg in the middle overs. He was then dismissed for a 37-ball fifty in the fifteenth over.
Santner finished with the wicket of Patidar, who scored 53 off 20 balls with five sixes and four fours, after conceding 22 runs in his opening over.
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