CHENNAI: Fifties from Phil Salt (78), Virat Kohli (50), Rajat Patidar (53) and Tim David’s late strikes (34 n.o) guided Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a 18-run over Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in the IPL on Sunday.
The defending champions scored their second highest total (240/4) of this season.
Walking in at 185/2 in the 15th over, David gave the final push in the death — something he has done immensely well so far. Batting against his former team, David got his first boundary in the 17th over. He slapped a slow ball of Hardik Pandya towards extra covers. In the same over, the Australian slammed a free-hit — a knee-height full toss — into the stands for six He then went on to take on Jasprit Bumrah for a boundary and a maximum in the following over.
For the Mumbai pacers, it was another night to forget, especially after the hammering they received in Guwahati a few days ago. Bumrah is yet to open his IPL account for the season, but kept it tight with his bowling. Along with Hardik, other pacers like Shardul Thakur and Trent Boult, continued to leak runs, while spinners Mitchell Santner and Mayank Markande were at the receiving ends of aggressive batting from RCB.
Sent in to bat, RCB’s opening pair of Salt and Kohli built a solid partnership for the first time this season. The English opener played the aggressor’s role to perfection in the 120-run stand. Salt’s 36-ball 78 was peppered with six fours and as many sixes, while Kohli, who took 38 balls to score his seventh fifty against MI, hit five boundaries and a six. It seemed like Mumbai would restrict the run-flow when they got Salt out thanks to Shardul Thakur. However, Patidar walked in, and unleashed a flurry of boundaries and maximums. In the process of scoring his fastest fifty in the IPL (17 balls), the RCB skipper scored four boundaries and five sixes. While he is known to be potent against spinners, Patidar’s ability to send deliveries far away off pacers brought the stadium to standstill. After slamming legspinner Mayank Markande for three sixes in his first four balls, he moved on to the rest. In Thakur’s over, Patidar tonked a full toss delivery over deep-midwicket for four and followed by a maximum over deep-backward point. The Madhya Pradesh batter sent a full-toss delivery frmo Boult flying towards long-on for four. Then, he punished the Kiwi pacer for his poor execution of a yorker delivery, as he squeezed it towards long-off for four.
Mumbai have all the resources to amass the total. They did just that by chasing a target of 221 set by Kolkata Knight Riders few days ago. On Sunday however, their chase received an early jolt, when veteran batter Rohit Sharma was retired hurt. His opening partner Ryan Rickelton also walked after his mistimed sweep shot off Suyash Sharma found Bhuvneshwart Kumar at short-third. In little to no time, Tilak Varma was also dismissed off Suyash’s googly. The southpaw's sweep shot found Jacob Duffy at fine leg leaving the responsibility with Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik.
They could not continue for longer, as Mumbai's grip over the tie kept loosening. The hosts went on to lose this match by 18 runs, marking their third loss of the season.
Brief scores: RCB: 240/4 in 20 ovs (Salt 78, Kohli 50, Patidar 53, David 34 n.o) bt MI 222/5 in 20 ovs (Rutherford 71 n.o; Suyash 2/47).