Hello everyone. I hope you are keeping well. With the COVID cases skyrocketing every day, health should be one's utmost priority. Don't forget, wear mask, sanitize yourself, and maintain social distancing. And if you are eligible, get vaccinated. That's the only mantra that would work against COVID-19.
Speaking of mantras, India's apna mantra, the Indian Premier League is here again. The defending champions, Mumbai Indians had the royal challenge from the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the season opener on 9th April 2021. MI would be looking to make a hattrick of tournament wins and take it in their trophy cabinet for the sixth time. And RCB on the other hand would be looking to have their hands on the trophy for the first time.
Like all the other IPL matches in general, the season opener too went down to the last ball with RCB winning it to get themselves moving on the leaderboard. MI, the strongest team on paper, took the game till the very end due to some great effort by their bowlers and fielders in the latter half of the second inning.
Elaborating more about the summary of the match, Virat Kohli surprised himself too by winning the toss (that happens very rarely) and put MI batters in the middle. The bowlers of RCB kept things tight in the power play and Rohit Sharma and Chris Lynn couldn't score freely from the start. Lynn was lucky to survive some close calls initially but Rohit wasn't so lucky and was run-out early on 19. But once he departed, the game changed and Lynn started middling the ball. Suryakumar Yadav and he put up a solid partnership before Yadav was dismissed by Kyle Jamieson for a well-made 31. And after the fall of his wicket, the game changed once again. Lynn and Ishan Kishan tried steadying the ship to set a good platform for their big-hitters in the final overs but Lynn was dismissed by Washington Sundar on 49. The lower half of MI didn't have a great day with the bat and Harshal Patel's brilliant spell of 5-27 and Mohammad Siraj's economic bowling stopped MI's inning on 159.
To chase down the target of 160, Sundar and Kohli opened the inning for RCB but Sundar struggled to score freely and was dismissed on 10. Rahul Patidar, the debutant for RCB in the game came on number 3 but couldn't stay for long and was dismissed by Trent Boult. After that, Glenn Maxwell and Kohli put up a solid partnership for their team and Maxwell looked impressive in his 28 balls - 39 runs. But Kohli, Maxwell, Daniel Christian, and Shahbaz Ahmed were dismissed in quick successions and MI seemed to have gotten things under control. The only thing obstacle between them and their first win was A B De Villiers who once again stole the show with the bat and almost won the game for his side. His 27 balls - 48 ensured that RCB had to get only 7 runs in the last over. He was run-out eventually on the third last ball of the match but RCB managed to score 2 runs off the last two balls to win the match.
Bangalore's middle order looked strong after a long time today. ABD as a match finisher just doesn't fail and they will have a great season this time if Maxwell has a good season this time. For Mumbai, the first match loss wouldn't be much of a worry as that's their habit now. They would be happy to keep losing the season opener as long as they keep winning the tournament eventually. Their middle order didn't click today but that shouldn't be the case in their upcoming matches and they should be back on track pretty soon.
Up next, we have Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals locking horns on 10th April. MS Dhoni's CSK seems to have a better team this season and Rishabh Pant's DC would be looking to continue their good run from the last season. Let's see which team gets those two points beside their names in this match.
Make sure to read the match summary here after the game.
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