This was the perfect example of the team comfortably walking home from a 200-yard chase. Mumbai Indians did this by destroying Royal Challengers Bangalore in yet another six-fest at the Wankhede, and in doing so, they launched their IPL 2023 campaign into orbit. They rose stunningly from No. 8 to No. 3 in the process.
Suryakumar Yadav and Nehal Wadhera, who were leading their march, put together 140 off just 64 balls in a spectacular stretch of on-demand boundary hitting that left veteran bowlers like Josh Hazlewood, WaninduHasaranga, and Harshal Patel confused.
Suryakumar’s fireworks, which led to his greatest IPL score of 83 off 35 balls, reduced the equation from 101 needed off 60 to 8 off 26 when he walked out to a rousing ovation. His fourth fifty-plus score in his previous six games marked a remarkable turn around for him following a lacklustre first half.
Wadhera, who shared the batting with Suryakumar for a large portion of that innings due to Tilak Varma’s absence due to an injury, made the most of his move up the order. The intensity of their relationship deflated RCB. They now find themselves in a crowded mid-table with four clubs on 10 points and a chance for a fifth to join there on Wednesday night.
The RCB slowdown
In the following two overs, RCB would lose Mahipal Lomror and du Plessis for a 45-ball 61, exposing that frail bottom middle order. At this point, RCB made the decision to introduce Kedar Jadhav as their Impact Player. He and Dinesh Karthik were now responsible for delivering the winning kick.
Karthik struggled to find his rhythm, but in the 18th over he suddenly switched it up from 8 off 7 to smash Kumar Kartikeya’s left-arm spin. However, RCB was shortchanged by his expulsion with 11 balls remaining. The rookie seamer Akash Madhwal bowled a superb last over—his second of the game—that went for just six runs. This helped RCB end with 199 as the previous five had only added 48 runs.
Mumbai Indians 200 for 4 (Suryakumar 83, Wadhera 52*, Vyshak 2-37) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 199 for 6 (Maxwell 68, du Plessis 65, Behrendorff 3-36) by six wickets