Suraykumar masterpiece steers MI to thrash RCB

Suryakumar storm hit Royal Challengers Bangalore as the MI batter scored a match-winning 83(35) to chase down 200 in Match 54 of TATA IPL 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Suryakumar Yadav put on a show at the Wankhede Stadium as he hammered seven fours and six sixes on his way to 83 off 35 balls to power MI to a six-wicket win after Faf du Plessis (65 off 41) and Glenn Maxwell (68 off 33) fifties had propelled RCB to a competitive 199/6.

Jason Behrendorff was the pick of the bowlers for Mumbai Indians with figures of 4-0-36-3.

Chasing 200, MI got off to a brisk start as the openers – Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan went on the attack early. The duo hit three fours off Josh Hazlewood in the second over. Kishan then took the attack to Siraj, hitting two consecutive sixes.

Kishan welcomed Hasaranga into the attack with a four and a six but the Sri Lankan all-rounder hit back hard to have Kishan (42 off 21) caught behind and then trap Rohit Sharma (7 off 8) LBW via a successful review. Nehal Wadhera and Suryakumar Yadav then mixed caution with aggression, hitting an odd four every over to take the score to 99/2 at the halfway mark.

The pair then hit fifth gear straight as they hit a six each off Hasaranga. They took 10 runs off Hazlewood and hammered 17 runs off Harshal to bring the equation down to 59 needed off 42 balls. Suryakumar Yadav brought up his fifty off just 25 balls as he cracked a four and a straight six off Siraj.

Suryakumar then went berserk smashing two sixes off Hasaranga and two sixes and a four off Vijaykumar Vyshak but the RCB pacer bounced back to have Suryakumar caught at deep square leg and then sent back David off the next ball as the roller-coaster 19-run over came to an end with 7 needed off 24 balls. Wadhera then finished off the match in style by cracking a six over cover off Green as MI won by six wickets with 21 balls to spare. Wadhera remained unbeaten on 52 off 34 balls.

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Earlier, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl. They made three changes to the starting XI as debutant Chris Jordan, Jason Behrendorff and Kumar Kartikeya replaced Jofra Archer, Tristan Stubbs and Arshad Khan. They named Ramandeep Singh, Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vinod, Sandeep Warrier and Raghav Goel as their substitutes.

Royal Challengers Bangalore made two changes to the starting eleven as Vijay Kumar Vyshak and Harshal Patel replaced Karn Sharma and Kedar Jadhav. Michael Bracewell, Suyash Prabhudessai, Kedar Jadhav, Karn Sharma and Shahbaz Ahmed made it to their substitutes list.

The match got off to a dramatic start as Faf du Plessis got a reprieve off the fourth ball of the over, dropped at mid-wicket by Nehal Wadhera, off Jason Behrendorff. The MI pacer struck next ball to get the big wicket of Kohli who charged down the track to heave it across the line but ended up edging it to the keeper. The umpire didn’t give it out on the appeal but Rohit immediately reviewed it and replays showed there was a big edge.

Faf du Plessis then got into the groove as he cracked back to back fours off Piyush Chawla to make it 9 runs off the second over.

Anuj Rawat opened his boundary account smashing one over covers off Behrendorff. But the MI pacer bounced back to get the RCB Southpaw who shuffled across and looked to scoop but got a top edge and Cameron Green pouched a good tricky catch running backward from slip. Du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell then got together and counter-attacked. Maxwell got off the mark with a crunching four through cover-point, off Behrendorff. The RCB captain smacked a couple of fours off Green before the duo took the attack to Behrendorff again, smashing a couple of fours and a six to make it a 16-run over. The attack continued as Maxwell unfurled a reverse sweep and a beautiful cover drive for consecutive fours to take RCB to 56/2 at the end of the Powerplay.

Maxwell then welcomed Chris Jordan into the attack with a couple of thumping sixes over the leg side to bring up the 50-run stand off just 26 balls. Maxwell then brought up his fifty off just 25 balls as the duo hit a four and a six off Akash Madhwal to accumulate 17 runs off the over and take RCB to 104/2. Du Plessis then brought up his half-century off 30 balls in an over where Maxwell hit a mind-boggling reverse scoop six over third man off Jordan.

The pair continued to deal in fours and sixes and Maxwell unleashed more of his creative reverse sweeps. Rohit brought back Behrendorff and he finally broke the 120-run stand as he had Maxwell (68 off 33) caught at deep mid-wicket off a slower delivery. It was the point where MI clawed their way back as Kumar Kartikeya sent back Mahipal Lomror and then Cameron Green had du Plessis (65 off 41) caught at short fine leg as he miscued his scoop.

RCB sent in Kedar Jadhav as their Impact Player, replacing Lomror and he got off the mark with a thumping four through point. Karthik then took the attack to Kartikeya and smacked a couple of fours and a six to amass 15 off the 18th over.

Jordan removed the dangerous looking Karthik (30 off 18) in the next over, as he pulled one straight to deep mid-wicket but Hasaranga hit a couple of fours to make it a mixed penultimate over for MI. Madhwal bowled a fantastic last over to concede just 6 off the over as RCB reached 199/6.