Picture : Twitter / IPL
The 14th edition of the IPL 2021 began amidst the Coronavirus surge and in front of the empty stands at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. And the opener of the tournament was a thriller and finished off the last ball. Royal Challengers Bangalore nearly made a mess of a modest target set by Mumbai Indians.
Earlier RCB skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field first .
Mumbai Indians lost Skipper Rohit Sharma early for 19 run-out at the total of 24. Hard- hitting Aussie opener Chris Lynn gave the inning the momentum with a 35 ball 49 with fours fours and three sixes , Suryakumar Yadav scored 31, Ishan Kishan 28 as the Mumbai Indians struggled to put on 159/ in their twenty overs. The big guns did not fire for Mumbai Indians – Hardik Pandya ( 13), Kieron Pollard ( 7 ) , Krunal Pandya ( 7).
For Royal Challengers Bangalore Harshal Patel was the star of the show with his impressive 5 /27 ( 4 overs), Kyle Jamieson 1/27 ( 4 overs), Washington Sundar 1/7 ( 1 over) , Yuzvendra Chahal 0/41 ( 4 overs), Mohammed Siraj 0/22 ( 4 overs), Daniel Christian 0/21 ( 2 overs)
In reply , RCB made a batting order change which saw Skipper Virat Kohli opening the innings with Washington Sundar. The move did not matter much as they could post only 36 as Sundar fell for 10. Skipper Virat Kohli scored 33 , Rajat Patidar ( 8), Glenn Maxwell who was in terrific form for Australia against India put RCb back on track with a 28 ball 39 with three fours and two sixes. But with was the master ABD , who once again showed his true class guiding the team to victory with yet another brilliant knock . A 27 ball 48 with two fours and four sixes tilted the match RCB way. RCB finishing at 160/ 8 in their twenty overs and winning by two wickets.
For Mumbai the bowling figures were : Trent Boult 1/36 ( 4 overs), Jasprit Bumrah 2/26 (4 overs), Marco Jansen 2/28 ( 4 overs) , Krunal Pandya 1/25 ( 4 overs) , Rahul Chahar 0/ 43 ( 4 overs)
