Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) returned to winning ways with a win over the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the iconic Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, April 12.
After being asked to bowl first on an outstanding batting wicket, RCB openers Virat Kohli and Phil Salt came out all guns blazing. The pair put 120 on the board in less than 11 overs. Salt returned to form to score 78 off just 36 deliveries to top score for the defending champions. His hitting mantle was taken over by captain Rajat
Patidar, who scored a quick-fire 53 at a strike-rate of 265.
In reply, MIwere never really in the game and continued to lag behind the required run-rate after each passing over, eventually falling 18 runs short. Sherfane Rutherford was the star of the show with the bat, scoring an unbeaten 71 off 31 deliveries, an innings which comprised nine sixes. The efforts, however, were too little too late for the five-time champions in the end.
The win takes RCB to six points from their opening four matches, and the last year’s champions find themselves third in the standings. MI, on the other hand, have now lost three consecutive games in the league and remain eighth in the table, only above the Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Like most IPL games, the MI vs RCB match also saw a plethora of personal and team milestones. These include major landmarks for iconic players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Here are the most important stats and milestones from Match 20:
- Virat Kohli: Becomes the first batter to score more than 1,000
- Virat Kohli: Has been involved in most 100-run partnerships in T20s (47)
- Phil Salt: Reached 350 sixes in his T20 career
- 120: Partnership between Salt and Kohli is the second-highest opening stand for RCB against MI
- Jitesh Sharma: Reached 1,000 runs in his IPL career
- 71-0: RCB’s second-highest powerplay score against MI
- Rohit Sharma: Reached 6,000 IPL runs for MI
- 222: MI’s highest total against RCB in IPL, bettering 213/6 at the same venue in 2018.
