Chennai, Apr 9 (Agency) AB de Villiers’ 27-ball 48 knock and Harshal Patel’s fifer guided Royal Challengers Bangalore to a thrilling two-wicket victory over defending champions Mumbai Indians in Match 1 of the IPL 2021 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, here on Friday. Sent into bat, Mumbai Indians scored 159/8 in 20 overs. For RCB, Harshal Patel finished with excellent figures of 5/27 to become the first bowler ever to record a five-for against Mumbai Indians in the IPL history. In reply, RCB banked on gritty knocks from Glenn Maxwell, captain Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers to cross the finish line off the final ball of the match. Maxwell, playing his first match for RCB made 39 runs while Kohli, who opened the innings for RCB with Washington Sundar and scored 33 before falling to Jasprit Bumrah.
Maxwell and Kohli had a 52-run partnership for the third-wicket which lay the foundation for the chase. But, it was MI’s strike bowler Bumrah, who came back for his second spell and removed the Indian captain in the 13th over. Soon, Maxwell departed in the 14th over bowled by Jansen, leaving his team in a spot of bother. Fortunately for RCB, AB de Villiers rolled back the years with his beautiful yet brutal assault to tackle the MI pacers in the death overs and take the team within touching distance of the target by scoring 48 off just 27 balls. However, things got a bit too close for comfort after de Villiers got run out with 2 needed from as many balls. But, RCB held their nerves as Harshal hit the winnings runs off the final delivery to reach the target and get 2 points in the bag for them. Earlier, put in to bat first on a wicket, that kept low and seamers had some advantage, MI are to a slow start, before opener and skipper Rohit Sharma and debutant Chris Lynn took time to assess the nature of the pitch. When Rohit Sharma (19, 15 balls), who during the England test was in prime form in this same sluggish wicket, started exploding after hitting a six and four, went for a non-existent run and was run out in the foruth over.
However, Surakumar Yadav (31, 23 balls) and Lynn stitched together a 70-run stand for the second wicket, after which the innings fell apart as Patel picked up three quick wickets to finish with a five wicket haul. Yadav edged to Jamiseon, as the pacers kept the run scoring under control, even as the spinners Chahal and Shahbaz Ahmed went for some runs. Lynn, who was timing well, fell short of a well deserved half century when he top edged a pull of Washington Sundar’s first over, who ran yards and held the skier. He scored 49 of 35 balls, when Hardik Pandya joined in form Ishan Kishan who played well in the T-20s against the recent home series against England, in a bid to take the team to a decent total. When the Mumbai team started building the momentum, Harshad Patel, who started with a no-ball and conceded 15 runs in the first over, came back strongly to decimate the middle and the tail to finish with a five-for in his first match. With clever change of pace he bowled the rival batsmen into playing false shots, as MI slid from 135 for three to 158 for eight, picking up three wickets in an over after dismantling the MI batsmen.