RCB suffers a massive blow as Reece Topley gets injured vs MI in IPL 2023
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered a major scare as Reece Topley was injured while fielding in their IPL 2023 opener against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday, April 2.
The incident took place in the eighth over off Karn Sharma’s bowling when Tilak Verma played the ball towards fine leg. Topley dived full-length to stop the moving ball, but the England speedster landed awkwardly on his right shoulder and looked in tremendous pain.
The physio had a brief chat with the lanky pacer before he was taken off the field.
For the uninitiated, Reece Topley was bought for ₹1.9 crore by RCB for IPL 2023. The left-arm pacer has a fantastic T20 record, scalping 178 wickets in 139 T20s at an economy rate of 8.20.
The 29-year-old was previously ruled out of the 2022 T20 World Cup due to an injury. He rolled his left ankle during a fielding drill in Brisbane during a warmup game against Pakistan.
RCB are already without Rajat Patidar and Josh Hazlewood. The Aussie pacer, in particular, is likely to join the franchise after the first seven games. Meanwhile, there is no update on Patidar, who is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy.
Official update on Reece Topley's injury
Speaking on-air, English commentator Ian Bishop confirmed that Reece Topley suffered a shoulder dislocation and has been put back in place, but he will take no further part in the ongoing game.
As far as the match is concerned, Topley took the prized wicket of Cameron Green. He had decent figures of 1/14 from two overs before leaving the ground due to injury.
Topley's absence in the last two overs proved costly for RCB as MI posted 171/7 in their allotted 20 overs. Tilak Verma remained unbeaten on 84 off 46 balls, including four sixes and nine boundaries.
The middle-order batter rescued the visitors from 48/4 after Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan failed to deliver with the bat.
Nehal Wadhera and Arshad Khan also chipped in with 21(13) and 15(9), respectively.
For RCB, Karn Sharma took two wickets, while Topley, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Michael Bracewell, and Harshal Patel settled for one wicket apiece.
Follow RCB vs MI live score here.