NEWS
Follow UsRoyal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) succumbed to their fifth loss in the IPL 2024 after a Mumbai Indians thrashing that was borderline ludicrous. On the batting paradise of Wankhede Stadium, RCB could muster 196 runs, but a special innings from Suryakumar Yadav followed by an aggressive opening partnership between Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma ensured that the target was not enough.
On a night Jasprit Bumrah bagged his second five-wicket haul in the IPL, Mohammed Siraj went for 37 runs in three overs, encapsulating their journey so far. Skipper Faf du Plessis was blunt in his assessment, underlining how bowling has been a problem for them, but also blamed the loss on the dew factor.
“It's a tough pill to swallow - a combination of two things, very wet, I need to somehow win some tosses. Secondly, they played really well, put the pressure on us and we made a lot of mistakes,” du Plessis said in the post-match presentation.
“We knew dew would be a factor, we might have needed to make 250+, but they made 196 look very less. You know when there's dew coming, you'll have to bat big, the ball was very wet, it was changed a few times and the bowlers struggled. We also lost a few key moments, we were going well when myself and Patidar were out in the middle with that partnership, but they did come back well.
“We will have to find ways with the bat, get those big scores, we know our bowling is not our strongest suit, but we'll have to find ways to manage it, we'll have to be creative, go hard with the bat and make most of the first 4-5 overs with the bat,” the RCB skipper added.
The match was also a celebration of the kind of bowler Jasprit Bumrah is. No bowler has had as devastating an impact as Bumrah has in the last 12 years of the IPL, and demonstrating the same on Thursday night, the Indian pacer accounted for five RCB wickets to leave them in splits.
“Every time you see him with the ball in his hand, you think you'll have to put him under pressure. But he has so many skills, bowls well under pressure, he bowls with the same action and has a lot of variations. I think he has become even better under the guidance of Lasith Malinga. We would have loved it if he was part of our team,” du Plessis added.
Another star for Mumbai on Thursday was Suryakumar Yadav. The dashing middle-order batter had some of the worst four months an athlete could endure - having been sidelined for multiple injuries since December. Yadav had to undergo treatment for sports hernia, an ankle injury, and right knee pain at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and even missed the first three games of the season.
But on Thursday, there was no trace of it, as Yadav took on RCB bowlers on a ride to score 52 runs off 19 balls. “It's always good to be back at Wankhede, when the tournament started I was mentally here only, although physically in Bangalore,” Yadav said.
“It felt like I never left. When you are chasing 200, it is important to know the dew factor and take your chances, both Rohit and Ishan did the job for us at the 10th over mark and we only knew that we had to finish early for that net run rate thing.
“I just try to play to the field and practice these shots and it is just muscle memory and I go out there and enjoy myself. The slice over point is the one that I enjoyed the most,” Yadav added.
Yadav also heaped praises on Ishan Kishan and Jasprit Bumrah for their insane batting display.
“The management told him (Ishan Kishan) to go out and enjoy, he has worked really hard on his batting and is just enjoying the fruits now. It's been almost 2-3 years since I batted against him (Bumrah) in the nets, because he either breaks my bat or breaks my foot,” the No.4 batter added.
