Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar set Wankhede alight, as RCB beat MI

RCB against MI (PC-BCCI)

It was supposed to be a Ro-Ko show. The Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) game at Wankhede Stadium on Sunday turned out to be a Ro-Ko sideshow. Virat Kohli scored a half-century, but that came off 37 balls. Judged against Phil Salt and Rajat Patidar, who scored at strike-rates of 216 and 265 respectively, Kohli’s innings was a stroll. To make matters worse, he felt his ankle during his innings and didn’t come out to field. An update on Kohli’s fitness is awaited.

As MI chased 241 for victory, Ryan Rickelton was the enforcer, while Rohit Sharma took his time to get into the groove. And as he started to up the ante, Rohit felt a bit discomfort in his right hamstring and retired hurt on 19 off 13 balls.

In the end, Kohli finished on the winning side, as RCB beat MI by 18 runs. Back-to-back wins for RCB at this venue, and after losing to Rajasthan Royals, the defending champions returned to winning ways. This is now three straight defeats for MI. The five-time champions probably hate taking the easier route to the playoffs.

Red ‘Salt’ Chili Peppers.

Two boundary-less overs had somewhat slowed down RCB’s batting momentum. The sixth over bowled by Jasprit Bumrah after MI won the toss and opted to field yielded six runs. Mitchell Santner conceded four in the next over. As it turned out, it was the lull before the storm. Phil Salt laid into Mayank Markande.
The first ball from the leg-spinner was a slider and Salt dispatched it to the wide long-on boundary to reach a 25-ball half-century. Markande panicked. He bowled short and wide and conceded another four. A half-tracker followed and another boundary ensued. The leggie was looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights. He presented Salt with a drag-down on leg to concede a six. Twenty-runs were accounted for in that over and RCB were back on course. Earlier, Salt had punished Santner with three sixes on the spin followed by a four. The fans came to watch Ro-Ko, some of them from Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. But Salt, and then Rajat Patidar, gatecrashed the party. If the opener’s 36-ball 78 was electric, the RCB skipper’s 53 off 20 deliveries resembled a blitzkrieg.

Patidar’s fireworks

He has been in sublime form in this IPL, and on a belter of pitch, the RCB skipper steamrolled MI’s bowling. A four off Shardul Thakur got him going and then Hardik Pandya, the MI captain, brought Markande back into the attack. Against one of the best players of spin in the country, the move was always fraught with risks. Markande is a spinner who doesn’t turn the ball, and Patidar hit sixes off him for fun – three in a row. When Patidar came to the crease, Kohli was batting on 38 off 29 balls. The former RCB skipper eventually sauntered to his half-century, but by then the current captain had reached 46 off 13 balls. When Patidar perished, a full house stood up to applaud a special innings. By the way, Markande bowled two overs and gave away 40 runs. Even taking into account the dew factor, the leg-spinner bowled badly.
MI’s bowling woes

Before this game, MI bowlers had taken 11 opposition wickets in the first three matches. On Sunday, they took another four. One of the best bowling attacks on paper, collectively they have been a let-down so far in this year’s IPL. Yet again, Bumrah went wicketless. His figures read: 4-0-35-0. Trent Boult conceded 50 runs in his four overs, Pandya accounted for 39 in his four, Santner returned with 1/43 from four overs and Shardul lost his wide yorkers and bowled a lot of length balls to concede 32 runs in two overs. Bumrah’s economy rate still is the mitigating factor and everybody understands that the great fast bowler is going through a rare fallow period in terms of taking wickets. But the others have failed to make up for it. Yes, pitch-wise, the tournament is not a level playing field. In fact, it’s disgustingly lopsided in favour of the batsmen. And yet, a bowling attack of such quality should do better. After the defeat against Rajasthan Royals, both Pandya and head coach Mahela Jayawardene criticised powerplay bowling. Against RCB, Bumrah bowled two overs in the powerplay. It attested the team’s bowling struggles.

Game over

Pandya was playing a lone ranger. A 23-ball 40 was attractive but never enough. The asking rate continued to climb. Eventually, when he departed in the 15th over, it was game over. For RCB, both Krunal Pandya (1/26) and Suyash Sharma (2/47) were impressive.
Brief scores: RCB 240/4 (Salt 78, Patidar 53, Kohli 50) beat MI 222/5 (Rutherford 71*; Suyash 2/47) by 18 runs.

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