3 memorable matches between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Mumbai
Mumbai Indians will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore at the iconic Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday night. This promises to be an exciting encounter as both teams will be looking to win after suffering defeats in their last respective games. Mumbai Indians, in particular, would be desperate to win as they have lost all three games they have played until now.
On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore would want to show a better performance with the ball after the hammering they received from the Rajasthan Royals batsmen.
When it comes to head to head statistics, the two sides have clashed against each other on 21 occasions, out of which Mumbai Indians have the upper hand by winning 13 games. At Wankhede Stadium both the teams have faced against each other on 7 occasions in which Mumbai Indians have won 4 games to 3 games by Royal Challengers.
Let us look at 3 memorable encounters between both teams.
#3 RCB chase down the target in the last over – 2008
This was during the inaugural edition of Indian Premier League (2008) and the first time both the teams clashed against each other. Electing to bat first, Mumbai Indians didn’t have an ideal start, losing opener Luke Ronchi in the second over. Dominic Thornely was retired hurt for 0 after he mistimed a short ball onto the grill of the bowling of Zaheer Khan, which hurt his nose.
However, Robin Uthappa scored runs at ease before he was stumped by Mark Boucher of the bowling of Balachandra Akhil for a well made 48. Late order contributions from the likes of Abhishek Nayar (20) and Shaun Pollock (28) helped Mumbai reach a challenging total of 165/6 in the allotted 20 overs.
Zaheer Khan and Akhil were the pick of the bowlers for RCB with 2 wickets each.
In reply, Bangalore openers, Shiv Chanderpaul and skipper Rahul Dravid, got the team off to a good start. Shiv Chanderpaul was the first batsman to be dismissed for 16 and Bangalore were 37-1 by the end of 5 overs. Ross Taylor (23), Virat Kohli (23) and Jacques Kallis (25) have made decent contributions but couldn’t continue their good starts.
However the innings of the match came for Mark Boucher (39* of 19 balls), his innings turned the game in the favor of Royal Challengers and they reached the target on the penultimate ball of the 20 over.
RCB won the game by 5 wickets and for his game-changing 39 of 19 balls, Mark Boucher was awarded Man of the Match.