IPL 2019: Twitter goes berserk as uncalled no-ball and Bumrah brilliance help Mumbai Indians beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 6 runs
Royal Challengers Banglore and Mumbai Indians, who had lost their opening games to Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals respectively, battled it out in a high-scoring match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
Mumbai Indians, who were asked to bat first by Virat Kohli, got off to a wonderful start as their openers - Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock - added 54 runs for the first wicket. QDK got out in the seventh over but that did not stop the Mumbai skipper from maintaining his aggressive mindset. Rohit went on to score 48 off just 33 balls before being dismissed.
The loss of the openers did not slow Mumbai down as Suryakumar Yadav and Yuvraj Singh took control of the innings. Yuvraj took a liking to Yuzvendra Chahal and smashed the leggie for three consecutive sixes. However, as he tried to clear the boundary for the fourth time on the trot, an excellent catch by Mohammad Siraj near the boundary ended his innings.
Suryakumar, who scored 38 off 24 balls, followed Yuvraj to the dug-out after 2 overs and that triggered a mini-collapse. Mumbai went from 142-3 to 147-7 in a span of 11 balls but Hardik Pandya played the role of a savior. The Indian all-rounder smashed 32 off just 14 balls to take his side to 187 in 20 overs.
During the chase, RCB lost Moeen Ali early in the innings but a 40-run partnership between Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli steadied the ship. Patel got out in the seventh over after scoring 31 and that brought AB de Villiers to the middle.
Just when the 49-run partnership between Kohli and ABD threatened to take the match away from the three-time champions, Jasprit Bumrah dismissed the RCB skipper with a well-directed bouncer. de Villiers, who had started his innings cautiously, then unleashed the beast within him even as he received minimal support from the rest of the batsmen.
Bumrah was excellent in his last three overs as he conceded just 8 runs and took the wickets of Kohli, Hetmyer, and Colin de Grandhomme. His wonderful death bowling meant that the equation boiled down to 17 required from the last over.
Shivam Dube hit Lasith Malinga for a six off the first ball of the last over but the legendary bowler subsequently brought out his A game, giving away just singles off the next four deliveries. Even de Villiers, who scored 70 off just 41, could not strike a boundary off those deliveries.
With RCB needing 7 runs off the last delivery, Malinga bowled a no-ball that went unnoticed by the umpires and Mumbai eventually ended up registering their first win of the 2019 IPL season.
Here's how Twitter reacted to the high-scoring thriller: