Yadav the lone warrior as RCB trounce MI

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the seventeenth game of the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL). The match was played in the Maharashtra Cricket Academy Stadium in Pune. Anuj Rawat was adjudged to be the Man of the Match.

Sharma’s wicket triggers MI collapse

Following MI’s defeat in their last game, a video of captain Rohit Sharma’s address to the team went viral. His demand to the team, to have more hunger and desire, was echoed everywhere in the lead up to this game.

As MI came out to bat, Sharma led from the front, showing exactly what he meant. He picked on the bowlers in the powerplay, giving his side a rapid start and revving it up. He and Ishan Kishan had a fifty-run stand for the first wicket, taking apart the likes of Mohammed Siraj and Wanindu Hasaranga.

However, as RCB’s go-to bowler, Harshal Patel got rid of Sharma with his second ball. Soon after, Hasaranga got Dewald Brevis tangled for a leg before wicket (LBW), and Akash Deep’s plan to Kishan paid off. During the same over of Deep, Tilak Varma was run out after some quick thinking by Glenn Maxwell. Hasaranga then returned the next over to get Kieron Pollard LBW first ball as well. Suryakumar Yadav and debutant Ramandeep Singh seemed to forge a rescue act, but Patel got the latter with a trademark slower delivery.

From 50/0 in 6.1 overs to 79/6 in 13.2, RCB turned the game on its head completely in the space of 43 balls.

Yadav gives MI an outside chance

With a collapse of the stature that MI had, most batters would have been flustered and lost their wicket cheaply. Suryakumar Yadav, though, was not one of those players, and played one of the finest innings of his career.

Despite the score being at 80/6 in 14 overs, Yadav teed off as if it was normal, dancing down to the spinners and flaying the pacers over the infield. In the last five overs, MI mustered up 59 runs, Yadav scoring the vast bulk of the runs, while finishing on 68 off 37. With the team total at 151, MI at least had a score to defend.

du Plessis shows faith in Rawat

Despite getting starts in previous games, Anuj Rawat was yet to capitalise on any of those. Faf du Plessis, the RCB captain, however, showed faith in his young batter. Better yet, with a middling total to chase down, he gave Rawat the licence to go after the bowling.

Rawat took his time, just like du Plessis, with RCB getting just 30 runs in the powerplay, despite having flat-batted Jaydev Unadkat for consecutive sixes. It was the Murugan Ashwin over after the powerplay that the two openers picked as their springboard, bludgeoning him for 15 runs.

du Plessis fell for just 16 off 24, which meant some more urgency was required from Virat Kohli, the new batter. Kohli did exactly as was asked of him, finding gaps for quick runs between the wickets and also boundaries. The energy he brought even transferred to Rawat, who started attacking more after a bit of a slump in the middle.

Rawat got to his 50 off 38 balls, and Kohli, too, started taking on the bowlers. RCB were marching towards a victory, and the MI bowlers seemed to have no response whatsoever.

Maxwell finishes off in style

Despite victory being inevitable, MI did manage to get rid of Rawat, courtesy of a Ramandeep Singh direct hit. Then in a highly controversial call by the third umpire, Kohli was out LBW to Brevis’ first ball in the IPL. Nonetheless, Glenn Maxwell, playing his first match of the season, finished the game with a switch hit for four, and another four off the backfoot to take RCB to the third spot on the points table.