Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Mumbai Indians in last-ball IPL thriller

Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Mumbai Indians by two wickets in a last-ball IPL thriller in Raipur. Krunal Pandya’s 73 and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 4/23 starred as RCB climbed to the top of the table, eliminating MI from playoff contention

Raipur: Krunal Pandya’s gritty 73 and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s all-round heroics (4/23, 7 not out) powered Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a nervy two-wicket victory and knocked Mumbai Indians out of the race for IPL playoffs here on Sunday.

The win took RCB to the top of the Indian Premier League table with 14 points from 11 matches.

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In a low-scoring attritional contest, fortunes swung from one side to the other but RCB got over the line in the final ball, scoring two off it.

The defending champions made the required 15 runs off the final over bowled by Raj Bawa, including a six from Bhuvneshwar while also losing the last recognised batter in the form of Romario Shepherd (4).

RCB kept fighting from being reduced to 39 for three, and eventually finished with 167 for eight in reply to MI’s 166/7.

Pandya battled cramps towards the end but produced a sensational 73 off 46 balls with five sixes and four fours, doing the bulk of scoring for his side.

A pivotal moment came in the 18th over when Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma came close from midwicket and long-on to a top edge which had carried all the way towards them. While Dhir collected the ball, he parried it to Tilak poorly and the chance was missed.

Pandya made the most of it, hammering two sixes off AM Ghazanfar to take RCB closer, but on the final ball, Tilak completed a bunny hop catch to remove the biggest threat.

Trying to impose himself on the game early on, Virat Kohli (0) smacked one straight to mid-off where Bawa took a fine low catch off Deepak Chahar (2/33).

Chahar struck again in the third over when he found an outside edge off Devdutt Padikkal’s (12) bat, who had struck a four and a six to make a confident start.

Jolted twice early on, RCB stuck with their aggressive approach which led to the dismissal of Rajat Patidar in the sixth. Corbin Bosch (4/24) found extra bounce off the surface and cramped the RCB skipper for room, and Patidar (8) could not prevent a leading edge flying high to wicketkeeper Ryan Rickelton.

Reduced to 39 for three inside the powerplay, RCB, like MI, too decided to drop the anchor while their opponents looked to squeeze the scoring rate further with some disciplined bowling.

Jacob Bethell (26) hit a couple of spectacular fours to begin with, and held one end strongly while adding 55 runs for the fourth wicket with Pandya. But in the 13th over, he flicked one off the pads straight to Tilak at deep square leg.

An out-of-sorts Jitesh Sharma (18) hit a six and a four to signal his return to form but he too perished trying to be aggressive, caught by Dhir off Bosch in the 16th over’s penultimate ball.

Bosch then had MI firmly in the game when he had the dangerous Tim David (0) caught behind.

Earlier, Tilak scored a tenacious 57 but a splendid 4/23 from Bhuvneshwar Kumar helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru restrict Mumbai Indians to a scratchy 166 for seven.

On a pitch replete with cracks and uneven bounce for fast bowlers, Bhuvneshwar made the most of the conditions on offer, which included a three-wicket burst to put his side on top.

Bhuvneshwar ran through MI’s top-order dismissing Ryan Rickelton (2), Rohit Sharma (22) and stand-in skipper Suryakumar Yadav (0) to leave them tottering at 28 for three early on.

But to their credit, Tilak (57 off 42 balls; 3x4s, 2x6s) and Naman Dhir (47) dug in deep for a resolute 82-run stand for the fourth wicket to lay the foundation for an at-par total on a pitch which forced the batters to work hard for their runs throughout.

Tilak also had Suyash Sharma to thank for dropping a sitter when he was on nine in the sixth over, since another wicket might have completely derailed a struggling MI.

Tilak was beaten by an off-pace delivery from Rasikh Salam and a top edge flew to Suyash at midwicket, where the ball went through the fielder’s hands for an embarrassing drop.

Tilak and Dhir showed resolve during their fourth-wicket stand in rotating the strike and playing the ball as per merit. While he was undone by a cross-seam delivery which kept low, Dhir struck five fours and two sixes to make 47 off 32 balls.

Bhuvneshwar’s three early wickets was also the sixth occasion the 36-year-old has taken a three-wicket haul in this IPL.

Bhuvneshwar struck on the final ball of the opening over to remove an in-form Ryan Rickelton (2). The Protea batter went for a lofted drive but extra bounce had him hitting it in the air and straight to Patidar at mid-off.

Bhuvneshwar then floated a knuckle ball while taking pace off it outside off, which had Rohit reaching out for it but only to edge it behind.

Suryakumar Yadav’s (0) forgettable IPL season had another failure when he too went with hard hands against one that was comparatively quicker yet probing outside off. A thick edge flew to Kohli who was jubilant having completed a perfect catch.