A fully-fit Jasprit Bumrah once again established his prowess as a death overs specialist to help Mumbai Indians register a six-run victory over Royal Challengers at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday. With AB de Villiers threatening to tilt the scales in RCB’s favour, the pacer’s miserly spell in the 17th and 19th over helped Mumbai Indians register a thrilling win over the host.
RCB required an improbable seven runs off the last ball, it might have still won had the umpire S. Ravi not missed a clear no-ball from Lasith Malinga. It was just not RCB’s day.
SCORECARD AND BALL-BY-BALL DETAILS
Virat Kohli needed 46 runs to become the second batsman to score 5000 runs after Suresh Raina. He achieved the milestone on Thursday, but neither could he add on to the tally nor take his team home against Mumbai Indians, after skying a Bumrah short ball to Hardik Pandya at mid-wicket. Chasing a stiff but achievable target of 188 at the batting-friendly ground, Royal Challengers’ progress was hindered by regular fall of wickets.
Leg-spinner Mayank Markande, who replaced Rasikh Salam in the Mumbai Indians line-up, was the first to put the brakes on RCB’s charge. The 22-year-old, who picked up 15 wickets in his debut season last year, got a free-flowing Parthiv Patel to play one onto the stumps after RCB sped to 50 in the first six overs. Markande could have had his second wicket soon after had Yuvraj Singh been alert enough at the first slip to send AB de Villiers for nought. And that drop almost proved costly as de Villiers threatened to take RCB over the line with a well-paced 70, but Bumrah proved to be the saviour for MI. When all others leaked runs, he finished with 3-20 from his four overs.
READ | Kohli left fuming over Malinga no-ball howler
Earlier in the day, cameos from the top-order helped Mumbai score a competitive 187 runs in its 20 overs.
After the Mumbai Indians waded through the first six overs without a loss, RCB brought in Yuzvendra Chahal to break the fledgling opening partnership that had already crossed the 50-run mark. He gave what his team wanted off just the second ball, shattering the stumps of opener Quinton de Kock. The left-hander was earlier dropped on 16 at mid-wicket by Colin de Grandhomme, denying Navdeep Saini of a wicket.
Bowling with pace and movement, Saini had earlier induced an inside edge from Rohit Sharma, only to see it missing the stumps and speeding to the boundary. Rohit punished him in his next over with a stunning hoick off the front foot over mid-wicket for the first six of the match and looked settled in for a long innings, clearing the boundary at will against none-too-threatening medium pace of de Grandhomme or the wily spin of Chahal.
Just when he was beginning to look ominous, Rohit miscued a pull off a Umesh Yadav ball that was going wide of the off-stump and offered a high catch to Mohammed Siraj who had no difficulty running in from long-on to pouch the ball. The Mumbai Indians skipper fell two short of a deserving half-century.
RCB vs MI: AS IT HAPPENED
And in walked Yuvraj. After dealing with singles to warm-up against Moeen Ali, the left-hander decided to flex his arms against leg-spinner Chahal. He despatched the first ball to deep square-leg; the next went straight over the bowlers head. The third, a trademark long-on swing, kindled hopes of a repeat of his six-sixes adventure against England during the World T20 in 2007. It was casual six-hitting that almost veered towards callous, and the end came soon. Going for his fourth six in as many balls, the 37-year-old misread the lift from a googly and forcefully scooped the ball onto long-off and into the waiting hands of Siraj.
Mumbai, trying to accelerate in the last five overs, lost wickets in a heap. From 139/3 in 15 overs, it slumped to 147/7 in 17.1 overs as Chahal ended his spell with four wickets.
But Hardik Pandya stood tall, scored 32 off 14 balls including three big lusty hits out of the park to take Mumbai to a challenging 187.
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