Who won yesterday’s IPL match: In the opening fixture of IPL 2021, Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to bowl. RCB opted for Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Christian and Jamieson as their four foreigners. MI handed the cap to tall and quick Marco Jansen instead of Adam Milne.
RCB new ball bowlers made life difficult for the MI batsmen as the ball hissed past the edge several times inside the first three overs. Rohit counter-attacked but a horrible mix-up resulted in his dismissal.
Lynn went up a gear and started hitting some terrific sixes after Rohit’s wicket. Suryakumar Yadav’s class and Lynn’s power accelerated the scoring rate and soon Mumbai were 86 for 1 after 10 overs. At this point, everyone thought that 200 was on the cards but IPL never ceases to surprise the fans.
Yadav threw his bat at a wide delivery and edged the ball to the keeper in the 12th over. Lynn departed soon and suddenly the fortunes shifted towards RCB. Hardik Pandya could not convert his start while Kishan was trapped in front by Harshal Patel. Harshal created history in the last over by picking up three wickets and registering the first-ever IPL five-wicket haul by a player against MI.
A thrilling run chase
Chasing 160, Kohli surprised everyone by opening with Sundar. RCB’s skipper looked in fine form but Sundar struggled woefully and was dismissed for 10. Debutant Patidar came at number 3 but failed to make a mark as Boult castled him on 8. Maxwell combined with Kohli and brought the innings under control with brisk running and lofted shots placed to perfection.
In his second over, Bumrah trapped Kohli in front to give Mumbai a much-needed confidence boost. Marco Jansen picked up the wickets of Maxwell and Shahbaz Ahmed in a single over to give Mumbai the upper hand in the proceedings.
Brilliance of ABD
AB de Villiers walked out at number 5 and took Rahul Chahar apart in his own style. It was a one-man show as ABD’s brilliance won RCB the game despite wickets falling regularly at the other end.
He might not have played a single game since IPL 2020 but ABD came alive when RCB needed him the most like he has done so many times before. He continued his old rivalry with Bumrah in this game and effectively won RCB the game with two brilliant shots in the penultimate over against Bumrah.
IPL 2021 : RCB vs MI, Who won man of the match yesterday?
Harshal Patel was not even among the favourites to start today’s game, but he grabbed everyone’s attention with his performance. He proved to be an uncanny operator as he mixed up slower bouncers with inch-perfect yorkers. He also scored the crucial winning run to get his team past the line in a thriller.
