Mumbai, April 8 (IANS) Pulled out retired hurt by Mumbai Indians in their previous match, Tilak Varma hammered a half-century off 26 balls and raised 89 runs for the fifth wicket with Hardik Pandya, but their effort went in vain as Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated the five-time winners by 12 runs in Match 21 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 here on Monday.
Varma hammered a brilliant 56 off 29 balls and skipper Hardik Pandya blasted 42 off 15 to propel Mumbai Indians from needing 132 off 56 balls to 41 off 18, However, RCB ended their sensational fightback as Bhuvneshwar Kumar sent back Varma, and Josh Hazlewood got Hardik in the death overs.
From Mumbai needing 28 runs off 12 balls, they succumbed as Krunal Pandya claimed three wickets in the final over, including the wickets of Mitchell Santner, who struck a six off Hazlewood, and Deepak Chahar off successive balls.
Though Boult survived the hat-trick delivery, a wide, and Naman Dhir struck a four, to make it 12 needed off two balls to take it to a super over, two off successive balls, Krunal got Naman Dhir on the fifth ball to seal a memorable victory over MI in a thriller.
Krunal Pandya ended with 4-45 while Yash Dayal (2-46) and Hazlewood (2-37) came good with the ball to restrict Mumbai Indians to 209/9 after quickfire half-centuries by Virat Kohli (67) and Rajat Patidar (64) helped RCB post a massive 221/5 to register their first win at the Wankhede Stadium since 2015 and end a 10-year jinx.
After being hammered around by the RCB batters, Mumbai Indians landed in trouble with Rohit Sharma (17 off 9) and Ryan Rickelton (17 off 10) falling to Dayal and Hazlewood. Will Jacks got a start and made 22 from 18 balls, and Suryakumar Yadav (28 off 26 balls) struggled to score against Krunal and Suyash Sharma, and that is where Mumbai lost the match.
Though Tilak Varma, who struggled to hit boundaries against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and had retired out, and Hardik struck some brilliant shots as they put Mumbai back on rails, only to see things unravel due to the brilliance of Krunal Pandya.
Asked to bat first, Royal Challengers Bengaluru made a brisk start despite losing Phil Salt (4) to Trent Boult on the second ball of the match.
Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli blasted 91 runs for the second wicket, hitting boundaries and sixes off Bout, Deepak Chahar, Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Vignesh Puthur. Padikkal blasted back-to-back sixes through mid-on and mid-wicket in Chahar's second over, followed it up with a four. By the end of the power-play, RCH had reached 73.1 in six overs.
Padikkal departed for 37 off 22 balls, hitting eight boundaries and two sixes, but Virat Kohli struck eight fours and two sixes -- one off Bumrah and one off Puthur, this one hit on one knee, bringing in his 29-ball fifty.
Pandya ended his India teammate's hopes of reaching his first century of the season, Naman Dhir picking up an easy catch at deep mid-wicket as Kohli miscued a back-of-length ball wide outside off, trying to manufacture a boundary behind square on the leg side. Kohli scored 67 off 42, his second half-century of the season. Liam Livingstone fell for a two-ball duck to Pandya, but Patidar and Jitesh Sharma ensured RCB reached a big total.
Patidar struck some superb shots in a display of sheer power-hitting. He blazed to his fifty off 25 balls, and along with Jitesh Sharma added 69 runs for the fifth wicket.
Patidar and Sharma hammered Pandya for 23 runs in the 17th over as the former blasted two sixes and a four off successive balls, while the latter helped himself to a four. They manhandled Boult for 15 runs in the 19th over before the New Zealand pacer got Patidar for 64, caught by keeper Ryan Rickelton off an attempted scoop.
Jitesh Sharma struck a couple of hefty blows as he remained unbeaten on 40 off 19 balls, hitting Bumrah for a big six in the penultimate delivery as RCB posted a big total.
