IPL 2019, Match 7, RCB vs MI: Player of the match
Mumbai Indians, on Thursday, registered their first win of the ongoing twelfth edition of Indian Premier League. They pipped Royal Challengers Bangalore by 6 runs at M.A Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, in a closely contested game.
Before the match, both the sides were on zero points, having lost the respective first matches of the season. It was RCB's opening home game of the season, while Mumbai was playing away for the first time.
After winning the toss, Virat Kohli invited Rohit Sharma's men to bat first on the flat looking track at the Chinnaswamy. The visitors had a golden start as Quinton de Kock and Rohit kept the scorecard ticking in the powerplay. However, as soon as Yuzvendra Chahal came to the bowling attack, the Mumbai Indians batting line-up fell apart.
The leg-break bowler removed four Mumbai batsmen and put the visitors under huge pressure. However, Hardik Pandya, held the drowning ship of the three-time champions by playing a fabulous cameo of 32 runs in 14 balls, steering them to the par total of 187.
RCB's chase
In reply, Royal Challengers Bangalore started in a similar fashion despite losing Moeen Ali a bit early in the innings. Though the arrival of the in-form Virat Kohli balanced the situation as he stuck some sweet shots down the ground. On the other hand, Parthiv Patel also scored an occasional boundary or two.
However, after the powerplay, the things slowed down a bit for the hosts. But with likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers at the crease, they picked up the scoring rate soon. The duo took RCB to 116 runs in 13.3 overs before Jasprit Bumrad dismissed Virat Kohli.
De Villiers remained unmoved from the other end, leaving no scoring opportunity go waste. The situation shifted to 22 required of last two and this was the time when MI's bowling spearhead-Bumrah, showed what he is made of. He conceded just five runs in the over, including a wide and legbye, making the job a lot easier for Malinga in the last over. Prior to that, he had given just one run in the 17th over. Ultimately, Bangalore fell short of six runs, awarding MI the first win of the season.
For his exceptional spell of 4-0-20-3 and incredible bowling in the death overs, Bumrah was the player of the match.
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