The season 12 of the IPL has found itself embroiled in controversies in the very first week itself. First it was the Mankading by Kings XI Punjab skipper On Rajasthan Royals batsman Jos Buttler and now comes an huge umpiring blunder in the match involving Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians at Bengaluru.
RCB skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and put the Mumbai Indians to bat first. Skipper Rohit Sharma and Quinton De Kock gave them a perfect start putting on 54 for the first wicket. De Kock scored 23 while Rohit fell for 48. Suryakumar Yadav scored 38. Yuvraj Singh threatened to score big smashing Yuzvendra Chahal for three consecutive sixes in his 12. Mumbai Indians lost wickets quickly and were struggling at 147/ 7 in 17. 1 overs. But Hardik Pandya, scored a quick- fire unbeaten 32 off 14 balls with 2 fours and three sixes to help them reach 187/ 8 in 20 overs. RCB bowling at the death overs flopped again and it cost them the match. The runs Pandya scored at the end mattered in the final result of the match .
For RCB , Umesh Yadav 2/ 26 ( 4 overs) Yuzvendra Chahal bowled well to take 4/ 38 ( 4 overs), Mohammed Siraj 2/ 38 ( 4 overs) were the main wicket – takers.
The hosts RCB chasing a challenging total sent Moeen Ali to open along with Pathiv Patel. But Ali fell early for 13, run-out by superb throw by Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma. RCB skipper Virat Kohli was in sublime form from the start and he scored a fine 46 off 32 balls with 6 fours . Parthiv Fell for 27. A B De Villiers was bit rusty at the start and struggled to find his shots. He was dropped by Yuvraj on 0 off the bowling of Markande. But soon ABD found his range and cut loose. And nearly threatened to take the hosts home. De Villiers struck a fine unbeaten 71 off 40 balls with four fours and six sixes.
RCB needed six of the final over to take the game into the Super Over, but shockingly Lasith Malinga’s final delivery to Shivam Dube was a no-ball that was missed by the on-field umpires and Royal Challengers finished with 181 for 5 in reply to 187 for 8 by Mumbai Indians.
For the Mumbai Indians, Jasprit Bumrah bowled superbly at the death especially the 19th over he had figures of 3/ 20 ( 4 overs), Mayank Markande 1/ 23 ( 3 overs) Hardik Pandya flopped with the ball 0/ 37 ( 3 overs) , Laith Malinga 0/ 47 ( 4 overs)
Mumbai won by 6 runs to clinch a thriller. It was the second consecutive loss for RCB. The umpiring blunder on the last ball had the RCB skipper Virat Kohli fuming.