IPL 2022, RCB vs MI, Top Performances: Anuj Rawat's 66, Harshal Patel's 2-23 and Suryakumar Yadav's 68 are the top performances.
Brief Scores: MI 151-6 (Suryakumar 68, Rohit 26, Hasaranga 2-28, Patel 2-23) lost to RCB 152-3 (Rawat 66, Virat Kohli 48, Unadkat 1-30) by seven wickets
Player of the Match: Anuj Rawat for his 66 from 47 balls The 18th Match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) saw the much-anticipated rivalry on the cards, Mumbai Indians (MI) up against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Mumbai Indians who are yet to open their account in Tata IPL 2022 went with only two foreign players in the starting XI for the first time ever in IPL history. The rejuvenated RCB under Faf du Plessis went into this match winning two out of their three games.
However, in head-to-head comparisons, the five-times IPL champions MI have dominated RCB winning 19 out of their 31 matches.
After winning the toss, Faf was more than happy to bowl first as that has been the norm in Tata IPL 2022 so far. Mumbai Indians were going handsomely at 48 for no loss at the end of the first powerplay striking at 8 runs per over. As soon as the RCB skipper brought in Harshal “Variation” Patel, the Mumbai innings fall like a pack of cards as they went from 48-0 to 79-6 in a span of just 8 overs.
The number one T20 Bowler in the world - Wanindu Hasaranga - along with Harshal Patel steamrolled through the Mumbai innings. “Cometh the hour, cometh the man!” – a special innings from Suryakumar Yadav helped Mumbai recover from 79-6 to a decent total of 151-6.
Chasing a target of 152 runs, RCB started slow but importantly did not lose any wicket in the powerplay. RCB captain Faf du Plessis had to go back in the ninth over for a personal score of 16 off 24 balls. However, Virat Kohli and Anuj Rawat combined well for the second wicket to add 80 runs and ensured the fourth consecutive loss for the 5-time IPL champions. RCB chased the below par target set by Mumbai in quite some fashion with 9 balls to spare.
Let’s scan the top three performances from the RCB vs MI game, IPL 2022:
Even SKY is not the limit for Suryakumar Yadav!
Walking into bat with MI at 60-2, Suryakumar Yadav was left stranded at the non-striker’s end with wickets falling almost every second ball. The Mumbai innings slid quite quickly from 48-0 to 79-6 but Surya kept his calm and played at run a ball initially trying to steady Mumbai’s sinking ship and shifted gears later on, striking boundaries in every over thereafter.
Surya went berserk in the penultimate over striking three sixes off Mohammed Siraj and gave the Mumbai bowlers a respectable score of 151 runs to defend. In his 37-ball-68-run innings, Surya struck 5 fours and 6 sixes. Only Mumbai Indian batter who looked most comfortable in two paced pitch.
Read More: IPL 2022, MI vs KKR, Top Performances: Cummins' 56*(15), Venkatesh's 50* give KKR 8th win over MI
Anuj RA”WAT” an innings & King Kohli back to business as usual
Anuj Rawat was following RCB’s mojo of playing bold and boy he was bold on Saturday night, smashing back-to-back sixes in the second over of the chase against Basil Thampi to set the tone of the run chase. Though his partner and RCB captain Faf du Plessis was going at a strike rate of 40 at one point but Anuj made a mockery of Mumbai’s bowlers and played shots which made the fans go “wow”.
Anuj along with King Kohli stitched a partnership of 80 runs off 48 balls for the second wicket which took the game away from Mumbai Indians. While Anuj was playing some unbelievable shots at a strike rate of 150+, scoring 66 off just 47 balls studded with 6 sixes and 2 fours; at the other end, Virat was just threading the gaps in the field giving us glimpses of vintage Kohli.
They both ensured that Mumbai were never back in the innings with sensible shot-making and excellent strike rotation with singles and doubles which put pressure on the Mumbai fielders who helped the RCB batters a few misfields too. Virat Kohli would consider himself unlucky to be given out after that “Virat” deflection off the bat but apparently, the umpire didn’t have conclusive evident to turn that over in Kohli’s favor. Virat just fell two short of a well-deserved fifty, scoring 48 off 36 balls enriched with 5 boundaries.
Read More: IPL 2022, RCB vs RR, Top Performances: Karthik (44*), Shahbaz (45) steer RCB home with 67-run stand
A tale of dipping slower balls from the master of variations – Harshal Patel
As soon as Harshal Patel was brought into the attack, he delivered with a magical slower ball which dipped more than the stock markets of India. The ever so dipping slower ball deceived the captain of India’s national team and Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma who was going all guns blazing prior to that ball.
Harshal “Variation” Patel took another wicket on the second ball of his new spell in the 14th over, foxing Ramandeep Singh with a slower off-cutter. Patel was not just experimental in taking wickets in crucial moment but he was rather effective in containing the Mumbai innings and gave just seven runs from the last over of the innings against the in form Suryakumar Yadav, which kept the Mumbai score to 151. Harshal went for just 23 runs off his 4 overs and picked up two important wickets.
IPL 2022 Points Table
What’s to come
After one double-header we move on to a Super Sunday double-header where the table-toppers, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will take on Delhi Capitals (DC) in the afternoon game at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) would look to derail Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the evening game at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Here are some of the Top Twitter Reactions from MI vs RCB game, IPL 2022:
Top Tweets on Suryakumar Yadav's unbeaten 68-run innings in MI vs RCB game:
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