Nearly 5 months after Mumbai Indians lifted their 5th IPL Crown in Dubai, they were back in India to defend the title and make it three in a row as the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League kicked off today when Mumbai Indians took on Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai. [This year teams won't have home advantage due to COVID-19 restrictions.]
New season obviously means we get to see some new faces. For RCB it was a debut for Glenn Maxwell,after he was brought for Rs 14.25 Crore. Last season's emerging star, Devdutt Padikkal missed out this match as he had just recovered from COVID-19. In his place youngster Rajat Patidar was given the debut. It also marked the return of Dan Christian, who was back in the squad after 8 years.
For Mumbai Indians, there were two changes from the lineup that defeated Delhi Capitals in the final. Chris Lynn made the debut for them, whereas 6ft 8 inch all rounder from South Africa, Marco Jansen made his debut as well.
Virat Kohli, the RCB Skipper won the toss(surprisingly as he was out of luck in toss during the England series) and elected to bowl first.
Despite losing Rohit Sharma early to a run out in the 4th over, Mumbai Indians made a fast start and posted up 83 runs in the first 9 overs with Chris Lynn and SuryaKumar Yadav smashing boundaries left and right.
Thier partnership of 70 runs in 42 balls was broken at the last ball of the 11th over when Kyle Jamieson ended the impressive knock of SuryaKumar Yadav. SKY tried to play a cut short on a short ball but ended but edging it into the hands of AB De Villiers.
Chris Lynn had to agonizingly walk back at 49 when he ended up getting caught and bowl by Washington Sundar. At the end of the 13th over, Mumbai were at 105/3 as the runrate dropped down a little bit.
By the time of the second strategic timeout, Mumbai Indians lost the fast start they got and with the scoreboard displaying 135/4 in 16 overs. In the last 7 overs, they had added 52 runs and lost 3 wickets.
A great comeback by RCB bowlers saw them restrict Mumbai Indians to just with 159/9 with Harshal Patel picking up 3 wickets in the final over to complete a 5fer and finish with a figures of 5-27 in 4 overs.
Mumbai Indians managed just 1 run in the last over and lost 4 wickets with losing the 9th wicket through a run-out at the last ball. At once where 200 looked to be on the minds, MI had to settle with just 159. They will definitely fill they were 30-35 runs short of target after the start they got.
RCB started off strong and despite losing wickets, they kept the ship sailing. A 52 run partnership between Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell helped RCB keep control of the game. However three quick Wickets dragged RCB into trouble. By the end of the 15th over their score was 106/5 with many hope now on AB De Villiers.
With 34 needed of 18 balls to win, RCB managed 15 runs in the 18th over with two boundaries from AB De Villiers. 12 runs in the 19th over reduced the equation to 7 runs from 6 balls with De Villiers on strike.
A single on the first ball, gave the strike to Harshal Patel on strike. A double and single made it a run-a-ball 3 runs of 3 balls to win. At the fourth ball AB De Villiers was runned out after he tried to came back for a second run. The South African was runned out at 48 runs.
With 1 run needed of 1 ball, Harshal Patel completed the single and got the winning run as RCB won by 2 wickets finishing at 160/8.
0 Comments