RCB ousts MI by 12 runs in last over thriller at Wankhede
RCB ousts MI by 12 runs in last over thriller at Wankhede
In a last over thriller RCB defeated MI at the Wankhede for the first time in 10 years and are now placed at third in the points table.
They ended their long wait for beating the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai after a last-over thriller. On Monday, April 7, Rajat Patidar’s men beat the five-time champions by 12 runs in Match No.20 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. MI, on the other hand, are in dire straits as they kept languishing in the bottom half of the table, losing four out of five matches.
As far as RCB are concerned, they made amends on Monday after losing six matches on the trot against MI at the Wankhede since last winning by 39 runs back in 2015. Earlier, RCB breached the Chepauk fortress, beating Chennai Super Kings at the venue after 17 years. This time around, they took down MI in the latter’s backyard. The win also meant that RCB stayed at third in the points table behind Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans.
After put into bat first, RCB didn’t take their foot off the accelerator, scoring 73 runs in the powerplay, although they lost the early wicket of Phil Salt. Virat Kohli got going right away and put pressure on the MI bowlers. In fact, for the first time in the history of the IPL, Kohli scored a sub-30 ball fifty while batting first. It was his 91-run partnership with Devdutt Padikkal that set the platform for the Challlengers.
Following Padikkal’s depart for 37 off 22 balls, Kohli, became the fifth batter to reach the landmark of 13,000 T20 runs, joined hands with skipper Patidar to keep the scoreboard ticking. In the 14th over, RCB upped the ante as Kohli and Rajat Patidar clobbered Mitchell Santner for 20 runs. But against the run of play, Hardik got rid of Kohli, who made 67 runs off 42 balls, decorated with eight fours and two sixes.
In the same over, Hardik dismissed Liam Livingstone for a duck to become the first Indian with the double of 5000 runs and 200 wickets in T20s. The death overs belonged to Patidar and Jitesh Sharma, who both made sure that RCB racked up a massive score of 221 for five. Patidar brought up his fifty off 25 balls and eventually scored 64 runs off 32 balls.
Jitesh also used the long handle to good effect, hammering an unbeaten 40 off 19 balls. Jasprit Bumrah couldn’t take a wicket on his return to competitive cricket, but he was arguably MI’s standout bowler with figures of 4-0-29-2. Trent Boult had a forgettable day after leaking 57 runs, although he took two wickets.
The run-chase wasn’t going to be straightforward, but MI didn’t throw in the towel at stage of their run-chase. Rohit Sharma fell cheaply for 17 after Yash Dayal accounted for his wicket. Josh Hazlewood used the DRS to good effect to get rid of Ryan Rickelton, who smashed four fours and looked ominous. Will Jacks made 22 runs off 18 balls before Krunal Pandya accounted for his wicket.
Suryakumar Yadav scored 28 runs, but struggled throughout after playing at a strike-rate of 10.69. With 123 runs needed off last 48 balls, it needed something special for MI to take them past the finish line.
Thereafter, skipper Hardik and Tilak Varma went hell for leather and brought up their half-century stand off 15 balls. Tilak, who retired out the earlier day against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), came out firing and scored 56 runs off 29 balls.
News Edit KV Raman
