Royal Challengers Bengaluru climbed to 3rd spot within the IPL 2026 factors desk after a terrific win over Mumbai Indians on Sunday. Riding on half-centuries from skipper Rajat Patidar, Phil Salt and Virat Kohli, a dominant RCB pummelled Mumbai Indians into submission, registering a complete 18-run victory of their Indian Premier League contest. The top-order troika of Salt (78), Kohli (50) and Patidar (53), together with Tim David‘s 16-ball 34 not out, guided RCB to a mammoth whole of 240 for 4, to which the star-studded Mumbai Indians responded with 222 for 5.
MI had impression substitute Sherfane Rutherford to thank for averting a heavier defeat, as his late and valiant 31-ball 71 not out, that includes a flurry of 9 sixes, decreased the margin considerably.
Skipper Hardik Pandya struck a brisk 22-ball 40, however neither he nor the others may actually impose themselves on a contest that stretched effectively past regulation time.
Chasing 241, a top-heavy MI endured an underwhelming powerplay, managing simply 62 runs whereas additionally dropping Rohit Sharma (19, retired damage) to a proper hamstring harm by its finish.
Despite Suryakumar Yadav changing Rohit, MI had been unable to generate the launch pad required to chase down the large goal. Ryan Rickelton (37 off 22 balls) offered an honest begin, however twin strikes within the eighth over by Suyash Sharma (2/47) left MI reeling.
Rickelton was undone by further bounce, top-edging a catch to Bhuvneshwar Kumar at brief third man, whereas Tilak Varma (1) suffered yet one more failure, a lot to the hosts’ dismay.
Attempting a sweep off the penultimate supply, Tilak merely supplied catching observe to Jacob Duffy at brief effective leg.
Hardik and Suryakumar then tried to rebuild, however there was no sustained counter-attack. On a benign floor, MI didn’t hit a single six between overs 8 and 13, and regardless of a short flurry of fours from Hardik, assist from the opposite finish was missing.
Suryakumar’s trademark sweep off Krunal Pandya ballooned into the air, with Rasikh Dar exhibiting effective judgment to finish a regulation catch at deep backward sq. leg.
Krunal was the decide of the RCB bowlers, returning figures of 4-0-26-1. He combined his lengths effectively, sometimes slipping in a fast brief ball that the batters had been content material to depart alone – and MI had been no exception.
The destiny of the competition was sealed when Hardik perished to Duffy, miscued a shot that was safely taken by Romario Shepherd at deep third man.
Earlier, half-centuries from Kohli, Salt and Patidar offered the impetus as RCB piled up 240 for 4. Salt and Kohli added 120 runs for the opening wicket, whereas Patidar and David equipped the ending touches with fast knocks within the second half of the innings to place the defending champions in a commanding place.
The innings started with Kohli whipping a spectacular flick off the pads to ship Trent Boult over deep sq. leg for a flat six. While Kohli stored rotating the strike and selecting up the odd boundary, it was Salt who took cost of accelerating the scoring charge.
The Englishman made room early on to pierce quick bowlers Boult and Hardik Pandya for boundaries. Boult was disdainfully pulled into the stands for a six, whereas Mitchell Santner endured additional punishment as Salt smashed him for 3 consecutive sixes after the New Zealand captain erred in size.
RCB’s blistering begin – with 50 developing in simply 4.2 overs – pressured MI to deliver again a wicketless Jasprit Bumrah for a second over within the powerplay, an uncommon transfer.
Salt then tore into leg-spinner Mayank Markande within the eighth over with three consecutive fours, whereas Kohli focused Santner’s subsequent over for 2 extra boundaries.
In search of a breakthrough, MI lastly turned to Shardul Thakur, who had Salt caught by Hardik at cowl, ending the 120-run opening stand.
Aided by some abnormal bowling, Patidar threatened to eclipse the IPL report for the quickest half-century, earlier than ultimately bringing it up off simply 17 balls.
He started by lifting Shardul over cowl for a 4 after which cashed in on poor lengths from Markande, dispatching the leg-spinner for 3 successive sixes. In no time, Patidar had raced to 34 off simply 9 balls.
Salt’s early assault, adopted by Patidar’s blistering 53 off 20 balls within the center overs, allowed Kohli to anchor the innings and produce up his half-century, earlier than he fell for a 37-ball 50 within the fifteenth over
Featured Video Of The Day
IPL 2026 News | RCB Outplay CSK For 2nd Win On Trot, Ruturaj Gaikwad & Co Suffer 3rd Loss
Topics talked about on this article
