IPL 2021
AB de Villiers, Harshal Patel Guides RCB To An Opening Win Over MI
By CricShots - Apr 10, 2021 12:24 am
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Mumbai Indians (MI) managed to maintain their record of losing their opening game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as they suffered a two-wicket loss against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the first game of the 14th edition of the tournament. As expected, AB de Villiers (48) helped RCB to chase down a target of 160 runs against the MI bowling line-up, and earlier, Harshal Patel bowled a brilliant spell of 5/27 which restricted Mumbai at 159/9 in their quota of 20 overs.

harshal patel
Harshal Patel bowled a brilliant spell

After being put in to bat first, MI started decently Rohit Sharma smashing an amazing six and a four before a mix-up with his partner cut-short his promising 19-run knock. However, Lynn played a brilliant knock of 49 off just 35 balls as he along with Suryakumar Yadav went after the RCB bowlers. However, the latter’s wicket result in MI’s run-rate going downhill, especially after Harshal Patel started varying their pace and it worked superbly for them. Ishan Kishan was the only batsman who was comfortable in the middle in the last 10 overs as he scored 28 runs off 19 balls, but he also got a couple of lifelines.

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It was all RCB in the second half with Harshal Patel shining bright as he ended up with the magical figures of 5/27. He picked wickets of Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, and Marco Jansen. With Devdutt Padikkal not playing, RCB played a punt on Washington Sundar to open along with Virat Kohli and the latter started with some glorious shots as the duo added 36 runs in 4.2 overs. However, Sundar and Rajat Patidar fell in quick succession and Glenn Maxwell arrived at the crease. He showed a glimpse of his amazing form playing some brilliant pick-up shots over extra-cover.

ab de villiers
AB de Villiers played another phenomenal knock

Maxwell also played a smashing hit to smash a six off Krunal in the 11th over which went for a whopping 100 metres. He made a 52-run stand with Kohli before Jasprit Bumrah dismissing the RCB captain. Soon Maxwell became debutant Marco Jansen’s first IPL wicket and in no time, RCB was reduced to 106/5 from 98/2.

AB de Villiers was at the other end watching all the mayhem and to make things worse, Daniel Christian was dismissed by Bumrah leaving the team reeling at 122/6 in the 17th over. However, the South African superstar teed off superbly to churn out runs off Trent Boult’s last over for 15 runs to bring the equation in control.

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The 19th over from Jasprit Bumrah, Ab de Villiers churned out 12 runs and it brought down the target to 7 runs off the last over. There was still the last twist left in the game and De Villiers got run out with RCb requiring 2 runs in the last two balls. And the man of the moment Harshal Patel got them home off the last ball as celebrations started in their camp. However, one has to credit MI for making it a nail-biting game with the game finishing on the last ball. 

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