Mumbai Indians were handed the biggest defeat in the last five years on Sunday night (September 26) by the Royal Challengers Bangalore as they were bundled out for 111 in pursuit of 166. Harshal Patel was the wrecker in chief for RCB with his hattrick and a four-wicket haul as the Mumbai team were all out in 18.1 overs.
With both teams having lost their initial two matches in the UAE leg of the competition, it was important for them to get back to winning ways and it was the team from Bangalore that did. Courtesy of that win, they have now strengthened their chances of making it to the Playoffs as they now have 12 points from 10 games and sit comfortably in the third position in the points table.
Mumbai on the other hand are in the mix now and stand second from the bottom even though they have an equal number of points as fourth-placed Kolkata Knight Riders.
Every game travels around players who were Hits and those who Flopped. This section of the match analysis is all about delving into the detailed performances of those players.
It seemed that September 27 was the day of all-rounders in IPL 2021 as just after the herpes of Ravindra Jadeja in the first match of the day between CSK and KKR at Abu Dhabi, the Big Show decided to put on a show at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium with both the bat in hand and the ball.
Maxwell, who was due big runs after a disappointing start to the UAE leg for both his team and himself, got going right from the word go. In the first innings, he paired up with the skipper Virat Kohli and put on 51 runs for the third wicket.
With the help of his reverse sweeps and switch hits, some of which sailed over the boundary more than once, the Australian scored 56 off just 37 balls. Striking at 151 and hitting six fours and three sixes.
With the ball, he was equally prudent, picking key wickets of Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya, and most importantly, giving away only 23 runs and keeping the nozzle tight in the middle overs, thereby building pressure on the MI batters.
Purple Patel, the Gujju grenade and whatnot, the ability to pick wickets at all moments have made Harshal Patel the talk of the town in this IPL. And few previous occasions in India, he might have missed the hattrick, but he wasn’t going to do it this time around.
Bowling in the pressure situation with two of Mumbai’s most dangerous batsmen at the crease in Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard, Patel faced a situation that was like make or break for him. 61 runs were needed off the last four overs and Panday and Pollard had just about got their eye in. It could have been a big 20-25 run over and the game might have turned on its head. No one would have ever imagined that the over would indeed tur the game, but for RCB.
Firstly, Harshal trapped Pandya with a slower ball, which he couldn’t connect with well and was caught by Kohli at mid-off. On the very next day, with a field suggesting that he would go for a wide yorker, the Haryana bowler bluffed Pollard and got his leg stump broken with yet another slower one. His last wicket in the hattrick, Rahul Chahar was found plumb in front of the wicket as he was not able to read a salwar yorker.
The medium-pacer then came back and cleaned up Adam Milne to end the game and finish with figures of 4-17 in 3.1 overs. With these four wickets, the 30-year-old has now reached 23 wickets in 10 games and is miles ahead of second-placed Avesh Khan, who has 15 wickets from the same number of games.
The third hit would have been Kohli for his fifty, but what Yuzvendar Chahal did was a total game-changer. With Mumbai going at almost nine runs per over in the powerplay without losing a wicket, the only thing that could have kept RCB in the game and stop the men in blue running away from it was a wicket and Chahal provided exactly that.
The leg spinner trapped Quinton de Kock and thus opened the floodgates of Mumbai Indians. After de Kock, the 31-year-old also removed Ishan Kishan as the pressure piled on the Mumbai team. Chahal came back one last time and removed Bumrah to finish with brilliant figures of 3-11 in his quota of four overs.
The Pandya brothers, much like most of the Mumbai players and the entire team have looked upset about something. While Hardik couldn’t play in the first game, Krunal has underperformed in all three matches. When he was sent to bat ahead of his brother Hardik and Pollard, it was supposed to counter the leg-spin of Chahal, but instead, he was counter-countered by Maxwell with his off-spin.
Thus, Pandya, who was supposed to sail the sinking ship to the coast, abandoned it midway, getting out of a meagre five, even after consuming 11 deliveries.
With the ball, he wasn’t great either as he could not pick up a wicket, but he surely was economical, giving away only 27 runs in his four overs.
There are many reasons why Mumbai have not been able to perform as per expectations. But if the biggest reason of all is asked, the answer will be Suryakumar Yadav’s batting. The man, who never scored below 400 in his last three seasons at Mumbai, is suddenly finding it difficult to get the bat going.
In the 10 innings of this season combined, he has not been able to cross 200 even. His average is dwindling in the late 10s and he has not been able to find the middle of the bat off late. In this innings too, he was caught at fine leg, not trying to reach the ball and hit it, but by chasing a wide delivery by extending his bat to it with the body far far away from the bat.
It seemed unreal to even watch it that it was the same Surya who stormed into the Indian side based on his brilliant strike play.
Although it was a crushing defeat, Mumbai is known for comebacks. And in their next game, which is against Punjab Kings o the doubleheaders day, Tuesday, September 28, the men in blue look to make yet another remarkable comeback. For RCB though, they need to continue their newfound momentum when they meet Rajasthan Royals on September 29.