Royal Challengers Bengaluru 240 for 4 (Salt 78, Patidar 53, Kohli 50, David 34*, Thakur 1-32) beat Mumbai Indians 222 for 5 (Rutherford 71*, Hardik 40, Rickelton 37, Suryakumar 33, Suyash 2-47) by 18 runs
Salt starts RCB’s march
Kohli registered the first boundary of the innings – a six – in the first over, but it was Salt who kept the assault going, scoring 47 off 22 in the powerplay. This involved welcoming Mitchell Santner, a reluctant powerplay bowler, with three sixes and a four. MI were forced to bowl Jasprit Bumrah for two overs inside the powerplay; still RCB got to 71.
The next key moment for RCB was the introduction of legspin with a right-hand heavy batting line-up, but that didn’t matter at all with Mayank Markande extracting little turn in either direction. Salt stayed back to hit three consecutive fours off his flatter lengths, and was waiting to hit a six the moment Markande gave it a hint of air.
When all else failed for MI, Shardul Thakur, bowling his first over as late as the 11th for the first time, executed wide yorkers to tie Kohli down and take the wicket of Salt, caught at extra cover.
Patidar denies MI a way back
With 25 and a wicket off the 17 previous balls, MI were hoping for a way back into the contest when RCB captain Patidar walked out. For some reason, Thakur gave up his death bowling and went searching, letting Patidar get off with a chipped four over mid-off first ball.
The return of Markande proved disastrous for MI as Patidar toyed around with him, hitting three back-to-back sixes, including one with a reverse-sweep. From 22 off four balls, the likely direction Patidar’s strike rate could travel was down, but he made sure it wasn’t a long way down.
In his second over, Thakur completely went to pieces with his wide yorkers not landing and slower short balls travelling over the heads on a bouncy red-soil surface. The ten-ball over went for 23 as RCB moved to 167 for 1 in 13.
RCB had a big opportunity to put matters past any plausible chase, but Kohli couldn’t get the boundaries despite trying to hit hard. Missing the reverse-sweep in his arsenal, he couldn’t take the clever Santner down, who eventually ended up with the wicket of Patidar.
Even though Bumrah’s two overs at the death were excellent, keeping him to just 35 in four overs, he has now gone five straight IPL matches without a wicket if you count the Qualifier that MI lost last year. With his 34 off 16, Tim David did enough to keep RCB at an even two a ball.
Krunal, Suyash interrupt the MI start
Rickelton got the chase off to a flying start, MI racing away to 39 for 0 in three overs and 48 for 0 in four, which promised a close match. However, Krunal’s introduction began to raise the asking rate. Only eight came off his first over with impact player Rasikh Dar conceding just 15 in his two overs inside the powerplay.
Rohit Sharma went off with what seemed like a hamstring injury, and at 72 for 0 in seven overs, MI were already looking at 13 an over to win. Rickelton had no time to get a sighter at Suyash, who started off with a wide wrong’un and a top edge on the slog sweep. Later in the over, he went outside leg with a wrong’un to Tilak, getting him caught at short fine leg.
Hardik Pandya walked in and hit a six first ball, but the asking rate went higher than it was at the start of the over soon.
Krunal provides finishing touches
At the first sight of Hardik, Krunal came on to bowl and fired balls in, bowling bouncers as well. He took the match-up to his brother to an even more favourable 32 off 35 balls. He also mixed it up with a slowed-down delivery to have Suryakumar caught at long leg; his strike rate of 150 only damaged MI’s cause.
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo
