IPL: Krunal the batting hero in RCB’s last-ball win over MI

RCB get the winning couple off the last ball chasing 167 at Raipur, go to the top of the points table

Mumbai: Mumbai Indians versus Royal Challengers Bengaluru lived up to the billing of being one of IPL’s box office contests on Super Sunday. MI were playing for survival, to avoid elimination from the race to playoffs. They couldn’t by the barest of margins. It was a two-wicket loss off the final ball.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Krunal Pandya celebrates his half-century in the IPL match against Mumbai Indians at Raipur’s Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium on Sunday. (ANI)

The plates on the black soil Raipur surface indicated that batters might encounter variable bounce. But MI desperately needed a powerful start to rescue their stuttering campaign. They were denied that by the ageless Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

The swing merchant delivered triple strikes in the first three overs of the innings to rock MI’s boat early. The wily fast bowler delivered with a range of dismissals. Ryan Rickelton (2) couldn’t find any timing to a good length ball when he holed out to mid-off. Bhuvi reminded Rohit Sharma (22) all over again why he was once his trusted lieutenant for India with an away going knuckle ball. And short-of-runs Suryakumar Yadav became a first ball ‘out’ candidate to an away swinger.

The silver lining defending 166 was the two-paced playing surface on which an IPL match was being played after 10 years. The pitch was set up for pacers to bowl cross seam. Except for the early overs to check if they could find some swing. Of course, Deepak Chahar was going to try and conjure some magic with his wrists. For the first time in the tournament, Chahar got the ball moving in the air. Virat Kohli became his first ball scalp. Devdutt Padikkal (12) was set up by Chahar, a change of angle from over to around the wicket and late movement caused his undoing in the caught behind dismissal.

At the other end, Corbin Bosch went short and cross seam and for once Rajat Patidar’s early intent seemed unnecessary as the RCB skipper’s top edge on 8 was grabbed behind the wickets. MI had struck back with three wickets of their own in the Powerplay. At 47/3, it was anybody’s game.

For a large part of the middle overs, MI bowlers did well to take the game deep and the asking rate to a challenging 10 runs per over mark. But they had one spinner too many for the conditions and Raghu Sharma wasn’t even used. They did not have enough depth in their pace attack to exploit the sluggish surface. That meant Suryakumar handed the inexperienced Raj Bawa the 14th over, which proved to be expensive. With not enough runs to play with, Jasprit Bumrah had to be pushed to service early. Again, this wasn’t the Bumrah of old, and RCB batters safely negotiated the 15th over.

In the 16th over, Krunal Pandya and Jitesh Sharma went on all-out attack against Bosch and with two maximums seemed to be achieving their objective of touching the finishing line early. However, true to the oscillating nature of the match, Bosch struck a double blow to leave RCB six wickets down with more work to do.

Krunal (73 off 43b), who had been playing a blinder despite cramp, had to go to a smart juggling boundary-line catch from Varma. That set the game up for Bumrah to stamp his class with over No.19. Bumrah was up to the task, but the inexperienced Bawa failed to defend the 15 runs he had to play with.

Brief scores: MI 166/7 (N Dhir 47, T Varma 57, Bhuvneshwar 4/23). RCB 167/8 (Krunal 73, D Chahar 2/33, C Bosch 4/26). RCB won by 2 wkts.