Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore are currently taking on against each other in the 39th match of the Indian Premier League 2021 in Dubai. Both teams have started the second leg with two defeats and are now trying to get their campaign back on the winning ways.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first. He named Hardik Pandya in the playing XI as Saurabh Tiwary made way for him. Virat Kohli, on the other hand, made three changes in their lineup as they brought Kyle Jamieson, Daniel Christian and Shahbaz Ahmed in place of Wanindu Hasaranga, Tim David and Navdeep Saini.
Also Read: Harshal Patel takes a hat-trick to break MI’s backbone
Virat Kohli started off well with the bat but lost his opening partner Devdutt Padikkal very early for a duck. Srikar Bharat walked out to bat at number three. He started tearing off the Mumbai Indians bowling lineup. Kohli was going strong from the one end and had shown the intent from the beginning of his innings.
He found a good ally in Glenn Maxwell after Bharat got out for 32. Maxwell started his innings cautiously and unleashed his beast mode towards the end. Kohli notched up his second successive fifty in 40 balls just before getting out to Adam Milne.
Maxwell also raced to his fifty in no time and put RCB into the driver’s seat. Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Maxwell and AB de Villiers on consecutive balls and restricted RCB to 165/6 in 20 overs.
In response, Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock started the chase with a bang and looted 56 runs inside the powerplay. Yuzvendra Chahal came and removed dangerous-looking De Kock for 24. Mumbai Indians were cruising along with Rohit on 43 and the team score being 79/1. MI collapsed from this point to 97/5 in no time.
Also Read: Glenn Maxwell switch hits Rahul Chahar for six, watch
They needed 59 runs in 24 balls with Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard being in the middle. Harshal Patel then launched his off-cutter barrage and dismissed Pandya, Pollard and Rahul Chahar on the successive ball to claim a hat-trick. He bagged four wickets just for 17 runs while Chahal bowled an economical spell of 4-1-11-3, which saw RCB winning the game by 54 runs.
See how Twitter reacted to this game;
Most wickets by an uncapped player in an #IPL season
23 Yuzvendra Chahal (#RCB, 2015)
23 Harshal Patel (#RCB, 2021) *
21 Sreenath Aravind (#RCB, 2011)
21 Siddarth Kaul (#SRH, 2018)#IPL2021 #RCBvMI pic.twitter.com/Vy57QucWdI— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) September 26, 2021
Most wickets vs #MI in an #IPL season
10 Dwayne Bravo (2013)
9 Harshal Patel (2021) *
8 Dwayne Bravo (2015)
8 Mohit Sharma (2014)#IPL2021 #RCBvMI #RCB— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) September 26, 2021
This is a great result for @RCBTweets. I think they have done enough to qualify.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 26, 2021
Did chahal bowl fast or slow today guys ??? 4–0-11-3 what a spell champion @yuzi_chahal @RCBTweets @IPL
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) September 26, 2021
Hat-trick man Harshal Patel! Well done young man! #RCBvMI he is running away with the purple cap.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) September 26, 2021
Massive win for #RCB. Consolidates position in the top 4 in points table. #MI left vulnerable after defeat. Still in contention for place on play-offs, but under duress now. Need a fresh gameplan and perhaps batting order
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) September 26, 2021
Ok.. CSK DC & RCB 4th?#RCBvMI #IPL2021 #CricitwithBadri
— S.Badrinath (@s_badrinath) September 26, 2021