Patidar, Salt and Kohli sparkle as dominant RCB crush MI by 18 runs
Mumbai: Riding on fifties by skipper Rajat Patidar, Phil Salt and Virat Kohli, a dominant Royal Challengers Bengaluru pummelled Mumbai Indians into submission, registering a comprehensive 18-run victory in their Indian Premier League contest here on Sunday.
Top-order troika of Salt (78), Kohli (50) and Patidar (53) along with Tim David’s 16-ball 34 not out guided RCB to a mammoth total of 240 for four, to which the star-studded Mumbai Indians responded with 222 for five.
MI had impact sub Sherfane Rutherford to thank for averting a heavy defeat as his late and valiant 31-ball 71 not out with a flurry of sixes (9) reduced the margin significantly.
Skipper Hardik Pandya made a 22-ball 40, but neither could impose themselves on the game which ended far beyond the regulation time.
Chasing 241, a top-heavy MI had an underwhelming powerplay which yielded 62 runs and by the end of it they also lost Rohit Sharma (19 retired hurt) to a right hamstring injury.
Despite Suryakumar Yadav replacing Rohit, MI were unable to get the launch pad to chase down a huge score. Ryan Rickelton (37 off 22 balls) did well at the top but twin blows in the eighth over from Suyash Sharma (2/47) left Mumbai reeling.
Rickelton was beaten by the bounce and a top edge was collected by Bhuvneshwar Kumar at short third man, but much to the host’s dismay, Tilak Varma (1) had yet another failure.
Looking to sweep the penultimate delivery, Tilak gave catching practice to Jacob Duffy at short fine leg.
Hardik and Suryakumar teamed up but there was no counter-attack.
On a benign deck, MI did not hit a single six between overs 8-13 and despite a flurry of fours from Hardik in between, there wasn’t much from the others.
Suryakumar’s traditional sweep off Krunal Pandya went high in the air and Rasikh Dar, to his credit, judged the elevation perfectly to collect a regulation grab at deep backward square-leg.
Krunal was the pick among the bowlers for RCB with 4-0-26-1, mixing up his lengths with that occasional quick short ball which the batters tend to leave alone and MI were no different.
The fate of the contest was all but sealed when Hardik perished to Duffy, mishitting one to Romario Shepherd at deep third man.
Earlier, half-centuries from Kohli, Salt and Patidar provided the impetus as RCB finished with a massive 240 for four
Salt and Kohli put on 120 for the first wicket while Patidar and David produced rapid knocks in the second half to power the defending champions to a strong position
The proceedings began with Kohli unleashing a spectacular flick off the pads to hit a flat six off Trent Boult over deep square leg. While Kohli kept picking the odd boundary, it was his partner Salt who took the initiative to accelerate.
The Englishman made room to hit fast bowlers Boult and Hardik for boundaries. Boult was pulled into the stands with disdain for a six, while Mitchell Santner was pummelled for three consecutive sixes by Salt when the New Zealand captain erred with his lengths.
