CHENNAI: There was no stopping Jasprit Bumrah. And towards the end, there was no stopping Dinesh Karthik. Bumrah helped Mumbai Indians restrict Royal Challengers Bengaluru at home. Veteran Karthik made sure RCB remained in the hunt with a breezy half-century (53 off 23 balls). Bumrah finished with five wickets for 21 runs and RCB had 196 runs to defend.
The match at the Wankhede Stadium had fireworks though Virat Kohli failed with the bat this time. Skipper Faf du Plessis (61) and Rajat Patidar (50) ensured a healthy partnership in the middle to ensure RCB got close to the 200-run mark. Glenn Maxwell once again failed with the bat and was out without scoring.
Patidar showed his prowess with some power-hitting and his 50 came off just 25 balls. The highlight was a six off MI skipper Hardik Pandya.
Though most MI bowlers struggled on the placid wicket, Bumrah showed why he is the best in the shortest format with his accuracy and wicket-taking ability. Twice he was on a hattrick. He mixed up his fiery yorkers with bouncers. Some slow deliveries on prodding lengths made batting difficult. Kohli fell early for just 3 runs Du Plessis and Patidar found form and put on 82 runs for the third wicket, but Bumrah, who bowled three overs post the halfway mark, seemed to have broken the back of RCB's resistance with a terrific spell.
Karthik made sure the runs remained healthy.
Brief score: 196/8 in 20 overs (Faf du Plessis 61, Dinesh Karthik 53 n.o.; Jasprit Bumrah 5/21) vs MI