Hosts Mumbai Indians (MI) secured their first victory in the IPL 2018 and that too in a big way as they beat the visiting team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 46-runs at Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai) on Tuesday night.
RCB decided to bowl first after winning the toss. While Mumbai Indians put a big total of 213/6 in 20 overs, Kohli led team failed to chase that as they finished their innings on 167/8 in 20 overs.
Now, we will briefly talk about some important reasons for RCB’s defeat in this game.
RCB bowlers’ failure to maintain the early pressure
When RCB pacer Umesh Yadav got two wickets in the first two deliveries of the match, it was their high chance to take control in the game. But the third wicket partnership between the opener Evin Lewis and no.4 batsman & MI skipper Rohit Sharma changed the game widely. Bangalore bowlers totally failed to maintain the pressure on MI batsmen as the hosts scored 60/2 at the end of the powerplay.
It was the time when MI made a superb comeback in this game and dominant as the game progress.
Rohit-Evin’s 108-run partnership
After the 0/2 in 0.2 overs, Evin Lewis and Rohit Sharma provided a 108-run partnership for the third wicket which put the hosts in the good position. While Lewis was dismissed for 65 runs off 42 balls with 6 fours and 5 sixes, Rohit Sharma further carried that innings on his shoulder.
Also read: Match 14 (MI vs RCB) – Hits and Flops
Responsible knock from the hosts’ skipper Rohit Sharma
After some flop batting performances in the early season of this IPL 2018, finally MI captain Rohit Sharma played a responsible knock of 94 off 52 balls. More importantly, he delivered a good time for the team with the bat when the team needed most from him as once MI was 0/2 in 0.2 overs.
Rohit was dismissed in 19.5 overs after his team crossed the 200-run mark. In this remarkable knock, Rohit hit 10 fours and 5 sixes.
RCB conceded 16 wides
RCB conceded total 17 extra runs in this match and 16 were from wides. It was too much in a T20 cricket as RCB delivered total 7 extra balls including two wide boundaries. It clearly showed that the bowlers needed to bowl in more control.
Also watch: Ishan Kishan receives a nasty blow
Hardik Pandya’s blistering knock at the end of innings
Though it was the very small knock, it put a huge impact on the game as that thrashed the visiting team’s confidence heavily. Hardik played an unbeaten 17 runs knock off 5 balls as his knock added minimum 10 more runs on the board which put a lot of pressure on RCB batting.
No real contributions from the batsmen
Apart from the skipper and opening batsman Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 92 runs knock off 62 balls, no other RCB batsmen even reached the 20-run mark. Moreover, the batsmen failed to provide a good partnership which was very important to successfully chase that kind of big total in T20 cricket. The second highest score in the RCB innings was just 19 runs by another opener Quinton de Kock.
