Chennai: Indian Premier League (IPL) showed its true essence as Royal Challengers Bangalore beat defending champions Mumbai Indians by 2 wickets in a nail-biter of opening game in Chennai on Friday (April 9).
First Harshal Patel (5/27) and Md. Siraj shone brightly for Virat Kohli’s side redistricting Mumbai to 159 before a blistering knock from AB de Villiers (48) helped Bangalore chase down the target.
View this post on Instagram
Mumbai Indian were put into bat at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium by RCB after winning the toss. Skipper Rohit Sharma went home inside the powerplay despite having a good start. Chris Lynn coupled with the in-form Surya Kumar Yadav were looking good at the middle adding 70 runs for the second wicket taking the side’s score close to hundred inside 10 overs before the latter fell in the trap of Kyle Jamieson for a well made 23 ball 31.
An array of wickets followed after that due to some superb bowling by Bangalore bowlers. Lynn got out soon just short of a well deserved half-century and so too Ishan Kishan (28) and Hardik Pandya failing to capitalise on their good start.
Despite Yuzvendra Chahal being taken to the cleaners, the three seamers Jamieson, Siraj and Patel were able to put resilience. Siraj despite going wicketless looked sharp while it was Patel who had the night to remember taking his first fifer in his IPL career.
Tough game but happy to be on the winning side. #playbold@RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/3UNhRunXDO
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) April 9, 2021
Mumbai’s middle order were unable to take chances in the death over loosing wickets on a regular basis which ultimately costed their opportunity to put a big score ending their innings on 159/9 in 20 overs.
Chasing a moderate target of 160, Bangalore lost Washington Sundar early who was promoted at the top of the order. However, Glenn Maxwell who was playing in his debut game for his new side showed his prowess from the first ball partnering brilliantly with Kohli.
The duo looked good and it looked like they could take the game away from the defending champions until both of them got dismissed with three overs. Jasprit Bumrah (2/26) trapped the skipper for 33 before the lanky teenager Marco Jansen (2/28) sent the dangerous Aussie home. Both the seamers showcased great character in getting their side right back into the game.
The mercurial AB de Villiers (48) started the onslaught taking the game to the wire despite before getting run out the in the penultimate over. It was Patel who fittingly hit the winning run from the last ball of game.
