What did Mumbai Indians do that prevented Royal Challengers Bangalore from continuing the momentum they had started to generate after their win over Kings XI Punjab in the last match?
Royal Challengers Bangalore couldn't hold on to their winning momentum and slumped to their seventh defeat in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise, captained by Virat Kohli, lost to Mumbai Indians by five wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. With this drubbing, RCB virtually got knocked out of the tournament.
The hosts won the toss and asked RCB to have a bat. Jason Behrendorff struck first blood, getting rid of the in-form Kohli in his second over. Parthiv Patel followed his captain back to the pavilion after only a couple of overs. AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali then put their heads down and added 95 runs for the third wicket in 61 balls to set the platform for a final flourish. RCB finished at 171 in their quota of 20 overs.
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What worked for Mumbai Indians? What did they do that prevented RCB from continuing the momentum they had started to generate after their win over KXIP in the last match? Let's find out
The visitors had lost their openers, but both de Villiers and Ali were looking settled at the crease. Mumbai Indians needed a breakthrough and skipper Rohit Sharma re-introduced Lasith Malinga in the 18th over.
The veteran Sri Lankan bowled the right lines and mixed it up beautifully to not let the opposition batsmen open their arms. The slower ones worked for Malinga as he
produced two wickets in the 18th over itself and two more in the 20th over to end with figures of 4/31. The free-flowing de Villiers also got run out in Malinga's last over.
De Villiers, who was batting brilliantly on 68 runs off 49 balls, set himself up for a final flourish with a six off Malinga's bowling on the first ball of the last over.
In the next ball, Mr 360 struck the ball towards the long-on region and was always going to take two runs since Akshdeep Nath was running towards the danger end. De Villiers started his second run before he was sent back by Akshdeep. By the time ABD could return to the crease at the non-striker's end, Pollard had effected a direct hit from 51 meters to run him out.
Openers Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock provided Mumbai Indians a perfect start and eventually went on to register 70 runs together in a mere seven overs. However, Mumbai lost their rhythm in the middle as Yuzvendra Chahal along with Moeen Ali picked up a few crucial wickets to shift the momentum towards RCB's side.
With this, the equation came down to 41 runs off 24 balls for Mumbai. And Hardik stamped his authority on the opposition bowlers to eventually get his team over the line with one over to spare. He smashed 37 off 16 deliveries at an astonishing strike rate of 231.25.
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