Defending Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians now have lost a big battle two times in a trot against Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore. They have now made a habit of losing against them, and today displayed yet another disappointing performance by the Mumbai Indians as their batting unit completely got dislodged by the RCB’s bowling unit. The losing streak of Mumbai Indians continues as they lose three in a row now making it difficult for their chances in this year’s playoffs. They were all out for 111 runs as they failed to win yet another match.
Royal Challengers Bangalore under the captaincy of the world best batsman Virat Kohli, had different plans after a great start by the Mumbai openers. Their plan to destroy Mumbai Indians worked in their favour as they won by 54 runs. RCB ended up winning the all-important contest by 54 runs in the end.
Match 39. It's all over! Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 54 runs https://t.co/KkzfsLzXUZ #RCBvMI #VIVOIPL #IPL2021
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) September 26, 2021
Royal Challengers Bangalore had gone out to bat first, with the motive to beat the bowling unit completely and also carried on with the pressure with the likes of their captain Virat Kohli. The opening partnership collapsed in the second over itself when Devdutt Paddikal was sent home packing by Jasprit Bumrah after bowling a length wide delivery making it easy for wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock to catch it. From that moment, there was a lot of contributions from Srikar Bharat as Virat Kohli crossed his half-century in no time. Soon in the 8th over Srikar Bharat was dismissed by Rahul Chahar as he mistimed his shot-making it easy for Suryakumar Yadav to catch the ball. The arrival of Glenn Maxwell changed things completely as he kept smashing the bowling unit all over and got a quickfire half-century. Soon after that, they got the big wicket of Virat Kohli making it easy for Mumbai Indians to come back in the game. The last few overs were bowled exceptionally as they got rid of Ab de Villiers, Maxwell and Shahbaz Ahmed quickly to make a score of 165-5 in the 20 overs.
On the other hand, Mumbai Indians got to a perfect start as both opening duo-pair Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock were looking quite comfortable in their batting as they bolstered the RCB bowlers. The moment the powerplay got over, Quinton de Kock was sadly dismissed by Glen Maxwell after mistiming his shot-making it easy for Paddikal to catch. Soon, Rohit Sharma was hit on his hand accidentally by Ishan Kishan and got out the next ball at the end of the 10th over for 43 runs. After that moment, the middle order completely failed to score big runs and there wasn’t any good partnership made as well. The big wicket of Hardik Pandya was the game-changing moment for RCB as he got out quick followed surprisingly by Kieron Pollard as he was sent home packing for 7 runs. Harshal Patel produced an all-star performance as he got his second hattrick of the season when he dismissed Hardik Pandya, Pollard and Rahul Chahar in once. Rohit’s men didn’t do anything about it as they were all out for 111 runs, in the end, losing by 54 runs.
The man of the match should be given to Glenn Maxwell as he performed superbly with the bat by scoring a quick half-century and also took the key wicket of Rohit Sharma which proved to be advantageous for RCB. For captain Rohit Sharma, they need to regroup and try winning all the games if they want to make it to the playoffs this year.
