Mumbai, April 11: Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav hammered blazing half-centuries in a brilliant display of power-hitting as Mumbai Indians thrashed Royal Challengers Bengaluru by seven wickets with 27 balls to spare for their second successive victory in Match 25 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Wankhede Stadium here on Thursday.
Ishan Kishan set a breakneck pace as he hammered a 23-ball half-century on his way to a 34-ball 69, adding 72 runs off the first six overs and raising a century-partnership with Rohit Sharma (38) as Mumbai Indians raced to 199/3 in 15.3 overs, Jasprit Bumrah had set up Mumbai Indians for victory with a sensational bowling display, claiming 5-21 off after Faf du Plessis (61), Rajat Patidar (50) and Dinesh Karthik (52 not out) struck superb half-centuries to help RCB reach a challenging 196/8 in 20 overs.
Suryakuamr Yadav then took over, hitting a 17-ball half-century, the second fasted this season only in his second match on return from an ankle injury and a sports hernia operation in Germany. He scored 52 off 19 balls, hitting five boundaries and three sixes.
This was Mumbai Indians’ fifth victory at the Wankhede and second victory in five matches in IPL 2024, which took the five-time champions to seventh position in the 10-team competition after Hardik Pandya won the toss and asked RCB to bat first.
This was the ninth instance when Mumbai Indians successfully chased a target of 190-plus scores, the most by any team alongside Punjab Kings. This is also the 11th time that RCB has failed to defend a 190-plus score.
Mumbai got off to a sensational start with Ishan Kishan batting in whirlwind fashion, racing to 72 runs in the mandatory Power-play. They raced to fifty in 29 balls in the fifth over.
He started his assault on the RCB bowlers with a six off Mohammed Siraj, a fine flick off a full-length delivery. Reece Topley was flayed for a hat-trick of boundaries in the third over — flayed to backward point, next an edge past Glenn Maxwell as he failed to hold on to it at slip and then another flick through midwicket for his third four of the over.
He shivered and pulled Siraj for a six, and followed it up with a punch off the back foot to the cover boundary and put the icing on the cake, leaning back and slashing him for a brilliant six. Rohit Sharma helped himself to a six after Ishan ran for a single as Mahipal Lomror saved a certain four. Siraj conceded 23 runs off the over. When Maxwell was pressed into action, Kishan hammered him for a four and then a six and four off successive deliveries in the same sixth over as he raced to his half-century off 23 balls, becoming the third batter to score a half-century in Power-play for Mumbai Indians. This was the second time Kishan scored fifty in the Power-play.
Kishan was eventually out for 68 off 34 balls, caught by Virat Kohli at long-off as Akash Deep managed to fox him with a slow bouncer as the Mumbai Indians opener failed to time his shot. Ishan Kishan managed a strike rate of 200-plus in his innings and Rohit Sharma looked a slow coach with his strike rate of 150-odd as they raised 101 runs in nine overs for the first wicket partnership.
Suryakumar Yadav, who came in as an Impact Substitute in place of Akash Madhwal, continued with the carnage, proving once again why he is considered the best T20 batter in the world.
The Mumbai batter put up a brilliant display of power-hitting, unleashing a range of shots that had the packed crowd mesmerised. Suryakuamr Yadav was out for a zero in his first match on return from injury but showed on Thursday that he is in brilliant form as he put up a sensational display of power-hitting to score a 17-ball half-century, the joint eighth-fastest half-century in IPL history. (PTI)
