Royal Challengers Bengaluru hung on to beat Mumbai Indians by 12 runs in a thriller on Monday night in the IPL to spoil Jasprit Bumrah’s return from injury and also endure a batting blitz from the Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya.
Mumbai included Bumrah in the XI for the first time in three months, having missed the final day of the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney due to a back injury.
Virat Kohli and captain Rajat Patidar scored 67 and 64 respectively to propel Bengaluru to 221-5 after being asked to bat first at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
In response, Pandya blasted a 15-ball 42, and Tilak Varma hit 56, but five-time winners Mumbai ended on 209-9 posting their fourth defeat in five games this season.
Mumpa’s elder brother and the Bengaluru spinner Krunal Pandya made his nerves hold to bowl the last over when the Mumbai team required 19 runs but three wickets, including two on the first two balls.
Left-arm spinner Krunal finished with 4-45 in Bengaluru’s third win in four matches.
Mumbai stuttered to 99-4 after losing opener and former captain Rohit Sharma for 17 runs but Hardik and left-handed Varma plundered 89 runs as he turned up the heat with four and sixes.
Varma was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hazlewood, who is an Australia pace bowler, then took care of the business of removing Pandya for his second wicket of the 19th over to derail the chase.
Left-arm medium-pace bowler Yash Dayal also picked up two key wickets including Rohit, bowled for 17 after he came in as an impact substitute, and Suryakumar Yadav for 28.
Earlier in the day, Hardik took two wickets while Bumrah returned figures of 0-29 in Bengaluru’s mammoth total as Kohli and Patidar dominated the opposition bowling.
Kohli lost opening partner Phil Salt on the second ball of the match to New Zealand left-arm quick Trent Boult, but began taking on the bowlers with regular boundaries.
He shared 91 runs for the second wicket with left-handed Devdutt Padikkal (37, 22b) and raised his fifty with a six off 29 balls.
Kohli stitched 48 runs with Patidar after Padikkal fell till Hardik struck back.
In the span of four deliveries Hardik returned Kohli and then England’s Liam Livingstone, who departed without a run.
Runs continued to flow as Patidar found an able partner in Jitesh Sharma, who made a blitzing unbeaten 40 and the duo clattered 69 runs from 27 balls.
A disciplined last over from Bumrah earned a flourish in the 19-ball knock featuring two fours and four sixes for Jitesh.