Mumbai Indians won by 5 wickets chasing down the target of 172.
MI had won the toss and opted to field first. MI brought back Lasith Malinga in place of Joseph whereas RCB were unchanged.
RCB were not hoping of the start tgey got as Virat Kohli(8) was dismissed by Jason Behendorff. The nature of the dismissal wasn't new as the RCB skipper wanted to drive through the covers to a ball which was marginally short of length and edged that to the wicket-keeper. Parthiv Patel then took the charge as he scored 19 off an over from Behendorff. Although that didn't last long as Parthiv(28) was dismissed to a slower delivery from Hardik Pandya which he tried to go aerial through off-side and was caught by S Yadav.
Moeen Ali and AB de Villiers reconstructed the innings. With former being more aggressive not allowing even the spinners to settle. Hardik Pandya wasn't spared either. Both the batsmen got to their respective 50s.
Malinga who is often regarded as the wicket-taker proved it by getting rid of Moeen Ali(50) and Stoinis(0) too. While AB de Villiers kept going at the other end. However it was the last over from Malinga that proved to be vital. Although AB hit six off the first ball, he was caught short of his crease trying to sneak in a couple to retain strike. Pollard fired a throw from the deep amd got the batter(75) run-out. Akhsdeep Nath and Pawan Negi trying to slog slower balls from Malinga got out. Last four overs went just for 35 runs and that tilted the momentum slightly in Mumbai's favour.
171 was a below par score anyday at the Wankhede pitch. And the way Mumbai Indians openers started it looked like RCB fell short by 20-25 runs. The opening duo of Rohit Sharma and de Kock were on the money as both batted some delightful shots and scored boundaries with ease. At the end of powerplay scorecard read 67 without any loss.
However it was the eighth over that changed the tempo. Moeen Ali got the ball to spin sharply to rattle the middle and off stump as Rohit Sharma(28) was bowled. In the very same over de Kock(40) got trapped in front by Moeen Ali. The ball probably was a slider and hawk-eye showed it to be crashing middle and leg stump.
Suddenly it looked like the pitch had demons in it as ball was turning square which we usually don't get to see in a t20 match at the Wankhede stadium. The two young batsmen Ishan Kishan and S Yadav batted beautifully against the spinners by coming down the track and nullifying the spin. Ishan Kishan(21) hit two successive sixes off Pawan Negi and even hit Chahal for a six before being cleverly undone by the leggie. Chahal deceived the batsmen by a flighted delivery outside the off stump and got Kishan out-stumped.
S Yadav and Krunal Pandya didn't take ant further risk. They rotated the strike and kept the scoreboard ticking. But S Yadav(29) for no reason tried to Chahal off his length, wanting to play a big shot over the in-field and paid the price as he was caught in the deep by Navdeep Saini. Krunal Pandya too got out who didn't look comfortable as he scored only 11 off 21 balls. Hardik Pandya had the onus then to finish off the match and he did that with utmost ease as he scored 22 off the 19th over to seal the victory. Hardik Pandya remained unbeaten at 37.
Lasith Malinga was Man of the Match for his bowling figures of 4 for 31.
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