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Thriller!

Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

Location: Dubai International Stadium

Game Analysis, Post Match Thoughts and Stand out performances 

This game was played between defending champions Mumbai Indians and four time finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore. Interestingly the teams were lead by India’s captain and vice captain with Virat Kohli captaining RCB and Rohit Sharma captaining the Mumbai Indians. 

Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat first which was not a bad start as RCB hit the ground running after a great opening partnership between Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal. Finch secured his first half century of the season but got dismissed by Trent Boult with Pollard taking a catch near the boundary. Virat Kohli the skipper walked out next. Kohli looked to make a statement of intent as he had been kept quiet with the bat in the previous two games. However it was not a good day for Kohli as he was dismissed for only 3 runs by Rahul Chahar. His fellow Indian teammate Rohit Sharma took the catch. RCB was under pressure and needed a good performance and they had the man to do just that. His name is AB de Villiers and he just nailed it along with Padikkal with both scoring half centuries. Padikkal also got out the same way as Finch and was out. Next came Shivam Dube who did the unthinkable, taking RCB to the 200+ run mark. RCB secured a total of 201 runs with the bat. Mumbai had hard work to do in order to win the game. Mumbai got off to a rough start with the bat after Rohit Sharma, de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav all went early in the game which proved to be very costly going forward. Hardik Pandya then came on to form a decent partnership with Ishan Kishan after hitting Adam Zampa for 2 sixes but then getting dismissed by the same man when he tried to go for another six but the ball went straight to Pawan Negi. Mumbai looked to be in trouble now and Pollard and Kishan were the only in form batsman left in the squad. They played slow until the CEAT tyres strategic timeout. Only god knows what they heard or did in those 2 and a half minutes because in the last 8 overs they gave everything starting with Kishan hitting a couple of sixes against Saini and Pollard getting started against Zampa and Chahal. Mumbai needed over 100 runs in the last 8 overs and brought it down to only 38 in the last 3 overs. At this point Pollard and Kishan had to hit a four or six with every opportunity they got and boy did they take their chances. Mumbai needed a total of 19 runs in the last over and started off with Ishan Kishan taking two runs after a disappointing hit. He made up for that with two sixes which bought Mumbai an opportunity to win the game needing just 5 runs off 2 balls. Kishan went for the win but got out after a mistimed shot. What was sad was that he got out for 99 runs, so disappointing to not see him hit the air and not getting a century. Now it was up to Pollard, it was do or die 5 runs of 1 ball if it was a six Mumbai win, if it was a 4 it would go to super over and it did go to a super over in fact the 2nd one of the tournament in just 10 matches! Mumbai made an interesting decision by not sending Ishan Kishan for the super over and had a fairly disappointing super over scoring only 7 runs and losing Pollard who hit their only boundary. RCB were expected to win but had a hard time with Bumarh’s yorkers but ABD still managed to hit a four after a bouncer by Bumrah and left Virat Kohli on strike to hit the winning runs and RCB won the game. 

Firstly I would like to congratulate RCB on their unbelievable performance and well deserved win. Good job! Mumbai were honestly never supposed to play the super over. I thought RCB would defeat us comprehensively looking at the way we were batting but boy was I wrong. Pollard and Ishan Kishan were our best players and gave us fans hope that Mumbai had a chance. About Ishan Kishan not going for the super over, Rohit Sharma later confirmed in an interview that Ishan Kishan was in no state to go out for the super over as he was exhausted which I and other MI fans understand. So well played RCB and good luck for the rest of your campaign! As for MI, a tough game against Kings XI Punjab next in Abu Dhabi. 

Some performances that stood out to me in the match were the batting performances of Ab de Villiers, Pollard and Ishan Kishan. Ab just nailed it with his performance in RCB’s batting innings and the super over. Pollard was the star of the show hitting 50 runs in 19 balls and giving Mumbai hope. Ishan Kishan was sensational and showed his potential and talent after a couple of disappointing campaigns with MI. These three players were just outstanding and in the end cricket won the hearts of fans this game because it just tells us it’s not over, anything can happen and it’s anybody’s game.