Contents
Mumbai kills 200 to go up to third place from eighth.
Suryakumar and Wadhera scored fifty-plus as Mumbai won by six wickets and 21 balls. Maxwell and du Plessis
Mumbai Indians defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore 199 for 6 (Maxwell 68, du Plessis 65, Behrendorff 3-36) by six wickets with the score of 200 for 4 (Suryakumar 83, Wadhera 52*, Vyshak 2-37).
It perfectly illustrated a squad going home from a 200-yard chase without feeling under pressure. Mumbai Indians did this by destroying Royal Challengers Bangalore in another six-match slugfest at the Wankhede, and in doing so, they launched their IPL 2023 campaign into orbit. They increased in rank from 8 to 3. in an astonishingly short period.
Suryakumar Yadav and Nehal Wadhera, who led 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, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Harshal Patel perplexed.
Suryakumar’s fireworks, which led to his most excellent 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 turnaround for him following a lacklustre first half.
Wadhera, who was Suryakumar’s partner for most of that innings due to an injury, made the most of being promoted up the order in Tilak Varma’s absence. The intensity of their teamwork deflated RCB, who now find themselves in the middle of crowded standing with four teams on 10 points and the prospect of a fifth joining them on Wednesday night.
Powerplay by Behrendorff
Jason Behrendorff ignited the scene at Wankhede by stinging his former club with the wickets of Virat Kohli and Anuj Rawat long before indicating what was to come. Off his fourth delivery, Kohli was out giving him the charge after nicking a heave that DRS reversed, and Rawat’s top edge to a scoop attempt fell into Cameron Green’s lap as he ran back from slip.
If Wadhera hadn’t dropped du Plessis at midwicket, Behrendorff might have also taken the first ball before the double strike. However, Maxwell and du Plessis swiftly negated RCB’s early losses to propel them from 16 for 2 to 56 for 2 after six overs, making them pay.
Maxwell-Faf’s talk programme
Maxwell and du Plessis wouldn’t pass away wondering, even though RCB’s fragile middle order has been a source of worry all season. Du Plessis defeated Chawla twice with fours before turning his attention to Green. The duo reached their half-century off just 25 balls on the other side of the powerplay as Maxwell welcomed Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer’s replacement in the XI, by hammering him for two sixes in his first over. There was only the beginning of the ensuing chaos.
Du Plessis, who was all muscle, would retreat to swing if he wasn’t naturally lofting through the line cleanly. Maxwell was a bizarre combination of the creative and absurd, switch-hitting, slog-sweeping, scooping, and reverse-ramping his way, treating the bowling with such contempt that you questioned whether Mumbai was in for a target in the neighbourhood of 230. When Maxwell pulled one across the line to deep midwicket for a 33-ball 68, the pair had put on 120 runs in just 60 balls. Maxwell and du Plessis work together to gain more points.
After reaching his half-century off 26 balls, Suryakumar Yadav celebrates
The RCB decline
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 introduced 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 from 8 off 7 to smash Kumar Kartikeya’s left-arm spin. However, RCB was shortchanged by his ejection with 11 balls remaining. The rookie seamer Akash Madhwal bowled a superb last over—his second of the game—that went for six runs, helping RCB end with 199; the previous five had only added 48 runs.
Turbocharger used by Kishan
Four innings, five runs, and two ducks.
Off the first ball from Hazlewood, Rohit Sharma crushed that with a fierce flat-bat. Following Rohit’s lead, Ishan Kishan attacked Mohammed Siraj, flicking and whipping his way to sixes. He smacked him for a four and a six, but in an attempt to continue his assault against spin, he was out to Hasaranga. Rohit was out LBW two balls later to a delivery that he attempted to nudge against the turn but didn’t turn as much as he had anticipated. Mumbai was in a difficult situation at 52 for 2 in five overs.
Takeover by SKY
Suryakumar and Wadhera played risk-free cricket for the next five overs to maintain the asking rate before the switch was finally turned on. Mumbai needed 101 more runs when Hasaranga returned to pitch the 11th, sparking a torrent in which both batters hit sixes.
Now that Harshal Patel had trouble finding his groove, Du Plessis returned to Hazlewood to limit the score. However, everyone was in awe of Suryakumar’s spectacular striking behind the V. He quickly knocked Hazlewood and Siraj to the ground for sixes behind square on either side. By casually lofting a slot ball from Siraj into the second tier down the leg side, he increased his half-century to just 26 balls and accelerated the pace even further.
Suryakumar perceived it as a football by this point, and it was so huge that even a beamer pointed at his torso could be deflected for six with ease. It was an anticlimax when Vyshak Vijaykumar dismissed him in a double-wicket over, but the outcome was already known.
Wadhera capably brought it to a close with a lofted six over cover to wrap up a second consecutive fifty. By that point, Mumbai had already completed the second-fastest 200-run chase in IPL history, with 21 balls remaining. Read more cricket news here at Indibet India, the best cricket site in India.
