It was a day of poetic justice as Suryakumar Yadav let his bat do the talking on Wednesday against Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore to guide Mumbai Indians to a five-wicket victory in Abu Dhabi. His match-winning 43–ball 79 knock came right after the Mumbai cricketer was ignored for selection by BCCI for the upcoming India-Australia series Down Under.
Surya’s knock was also special because it came at a time when MI looked in trouble at 72/3 in the 11th over while chasing 165, thanks to Devdutt Padikkal’s 45-ball 74.
However, rest of the RCB batsmen were at blame for not consolidating on Padikkal show as Jasprit Bumrah (3/14) spewed out his familiar death over magic with 35 runs coming from the last five overs.
Chasing 165, Mumbai Indians opening duo Quinton de Kock and Ishan Kishan couldn’t open their arms like RCB openers earlier and had a steady partnership of 37 runs before QDK (18 off 19) fell to Mohammed Siraj in the sixth over.
Kishan (25 off 19) followed two overs later when his attempt to step out and hit Yuzvendra Chahal could only find toe end of his bat to be caught at long-off.
No.3 Suryakumar Yadav looked adamant to revive the innings as he took an aggressive stance against Chahal but wickets kept falling from the other end with Saurabh Tiwari (5) and Krunal Pandya (10) falling to Mohammed Siraj and Chahal respectively.
But there was no stopping SKY on the night as he continued spewing boundaries, including three fours off Dale Steyn in the 13th over to take MI to 100. He stitched an important fifth-wicket 51-run stand with Hardik Pandya (17 off 15) in the win. Hardik did fall in the closing stages but SKY stayed on to finish the job with five balls to spare.
Earlier in the first innings, Jasprit Bumrah led the way with three wickets as MI restricted RCB to 164/6 wickets despite the latter looked set for a bigger total before the start of the 'death' overs on Wednesday. Bumrah took three for 14 runs as RCB went from 131/3 to 139/6 between the 16th and 18th overs.
RCB were put in to bat after MI won the toss and were off to a strong start with openers Devdutt Padikkal and Josh Philippe putting up a partnership of 71 runs in 47 balls. Padikkal then struck up useful partnerships with RCB captain Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers but the team went into a tailspin after the latter's dismissal.
De Villiers looked like he is on his way to a big score before MI's stand-in captain Kieron Pollard dismissed him in the 16th over. Bumrah was then brought back for the 17th and the over ended up being a double-wicket maiden as he got Shivam Dube and the big wicket of Padikkal in the over. Boult then dismissed Chris Morris in the 18th over after which Gurkeerat Mann Singh and Washington Sundar took RCB beyond the 160-run mark.
