Royal Challengers Bangalore has been one of those inexplicable stragglers of the IPL – stuffed with stars by perennial underperformers. This time seems to be different. They won the opening match of IPL 2021 against champs Mumbai Indians no less! They went on to win another game as well. This is rare, said fans. Here’s what else was interesting about recently concluded IPL games:
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and put Mumbai Indians in to bat. MI made a modest score of 152 with Suryakumar Yadav top-scoring with 56.
Quinton de Kock fell cheaply, but Sharma steading things and made 43 off 32. The Pandya brothers chipped in with 15 each. No other batsman reached double figures for MI.
Openers Nitish Rana made 57 ff 47 and Shubham Gill made 33 off 24. However, the next highest scorer was ‘extras’ with 12.
The Mumbai team won by 10 runs. In the end, KKR seemed to just fold. MI’s Rahul Chahar was Player of the Match for his 4 wicket haul.
RCB have typically performed below expectations. This match was a little different. Virat Kohli’s team only managed a modest 149 for 8 after losing the toss and being put in to bat. Glenn Maxwell top-scored with 59 for his team.
Though skipper David Warner (54 off 37) led from the front and Manish Pandey made 38 off 39 this was not good enough.
RCB bowlers kept taking regular wickets to remain in the game.
Sunrisers Hyderabad would have been confident of winning after restricting RCB to a smallish total. They were disappointed.
Kohli received plaudits for making the right decisions as a captain.
Glenn Maxwell was announced Player of the match for his innings.
SRH fans believe that the team sorely needs Kane Williamson right now.
Delhi Capitals lost the toss and made 147 for 8 when they were put in to bat.
Rishabh Pant top-scored with 51 off 32. David Miller of Rajasthan Royals seemed to take it away from DC with his 62 but it was an exciting game after all.
When things seemed to be going badly, Chris Morris came to the rescue with his 36 off 18 and remained not out.
He had been trolled for his previous performances but he seemed to make good with this one.
For his three wickets as well as a spunky tailender innings of 11 off 7 (including a six), Jaydev Unadkat was declared man of the match.
Currently RCB is the only team that has won both their games.
SRH is at the bottom, having lost both games and CSK has lost the one game it has played so far. Punjab Kings takes on Chennai Super Kings today for the eighth match of the IPL 2021. So that could change.
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