Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Wankhede.Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bowl first. Royal Challengers batting first on the Wankhede wicket. Mumbai have won 5 of their 8 games at the Wankhede. Last time when these guys met in the Chinnaswamy, Hardik Pandya was the difference between the 2. He scored crucial runs at the death over to take MI to a competitive total and RCB lost the game by just 6 runs in the chase.

They meet again but this time in Mumbai’s territory. Royal Challengers Bangalore were asked to bat first and they RCB lost their forte and their best player Virat Kohli very early in the game. Jason Behrendorff got the wicket of Virat Kohli with an inswinger. kohli was not expecting it to swing in that much but when it did he had to edge it to the keeper.

In came their next best player AB De Villiers. RCB has been so much reliable on this man that he had to bail them out of the situation after losing their skipper early. AB De Villiers in partnership with Moeen Ali stitched 95 runs together. Moeen Ali has been gloom and doom for RCB but he has the capability to take the attack on the opposition and which he did. He kept smacking spinners for 6’s and scored an impressive 50 but RCB wanted him to continue but he got out.AB De Villiers kept playing his shots. He was all over Malinga. AB’s record against Malinga is 61 balls faced 124 runs scored, 0 dismissals, strike rate of 203.3 these are some numbers against the best bowler in t20. He scored 75 off 51 balls and to up the scoring rate he got out in the final with RCB finishing at 171 for 7 in 20 overs.

Mumbai Indians came out to bat with some intent. Rohit and Quinton De Kock got to a great start by adding 70 in the first 7 overs but thanks to some reckless, ill-disciplined bowling form the RCB bowlers. In an over, Md Siraj was cut, pulled, cover driven he was everywhere on the wicket. How can a captain set field for these shots? If he has a plan and field to back it up then its bowlers’ responsibility to bowl to that strength but RCB kept bowling everywhere and kept leaking runs until Moeen Ali was introduced.

Moeen Ali got some sharp turn on the wicket which bought some hopes in the RCB camp. He got the wicket of Rohit with a sharp turn and QDK for a straighter one. So they got 2 in one over. Kohli bought Pawan Negi from the other end who kept turning them square. Ishan Kishan came in at number 4 and scored quick fire 21 off just 9 balls which included 3 sixes.

Suryakumar Yadav and Krunal tried to build some partnership but their innings was cut short by Chahal and Siraj. 31 needed off last 2 overs Pawan Negi was bought into the attack. Kohli had a discussion on whether to bowl a pacer or Negi but Ashish Nehra was quite animated to notify Kohli that Negi should be bowling. Negi should have been bowling an over before but Kohli held him for the 19th over. Hardik Pandya was the difference in the reverse fixture and now he had Negi in his radar. He hit Negi for 0,6,4,4,6, wd,1 Hardik finished the game by scoring 22 runs of Negi and Mumbai Indians won the game with an over to spare.

Royal Challengers Banglore are clueless with their bowling option and specially Md Siraj at some point he wanted the ground to swallow him up, he was so poor. RCB have lost the plot in this IPL and they will be fighting for their pride in the next coming games.