Twitter Reactions: AB de Villiers and Harshal Patel take RCB over the line against MI in a last-ball thriller

Glenn Maxwell shone brightly on his RCB debut while MI's IPL debutant Marco Jansen also did well with the ball.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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4 Min Read

Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Siraj
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Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Siraj. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)

Yes! The Indian Premier League (IPL) has started. The 14th edition of the T20 extravaganza got off to a superb start with a last-ball thriller. Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were involved in a classic IPL game which went down the wire. However, it was the Virat Kohli-led side that prevailed to get over the line off the last ball chasing down 160.

After being put in to bat first, Mumbai Indians got off to a decent start with Rohit Sharma and Chris Lynn opening the innings. The MI skipper looked in amazing touch hitting a six and a four before a mix-up with his partner cut-short his promising 19-run knock. However, Lynn made up for it smashing a brilliant 49 off just 35 balls with four fours and three sixes.

This was the period when MI accelerated with Lynn and Suryakumar Yadav going bonkers after the powerplay. However, the latter’s wicket brought MI’s run-rate to a screeching halt. RCB’s bowlers, especially, Harshal Patel started varying their pace and it worked superbly for them.

Ishan Kishan was the only batsman who was comfortable in the middle in the last 10 overs for the defending champions scoring 28 runs off 19 balls. It was all RCB in the second half with Harshal Patel shining bright. The all-rounder bowled three of the last five overs and despite conceding 15 runs in his first over, ended up with the magical figures of 5/27.

He picked wickets of Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, and Marco Jansen. His heroics restricted MI to a total of only 159 runs in 20 overs.

RCB clinch the last ball thriller

With Devdutt Padikkal not playing, RCB played a punt on Washington Sundar sending him to open the innings with Virat Kohli. Though the southpaw struggled, Kohli played some glorious shots as the duo added 36 runs in 4.2 overs. Sundar’s 16-ball toil ended in the fifth over when he tried to smack Krunal Pandya out of the park. Rajat Patidar’s RCB debut didn’t go well as he could only muster 8 runs.

Glenn Maxwell arrived at the crease then and showed a glimpse of his amazing form playing some brilliant pick-up shots over extra-covers. He also played his famous switch hits for boundaries before sending one in the orbit off Krunal in the 11th over. The ball travelled a whopping 100 metres and it went out of the Chepauk.

At the other end, Kohli slowed down after a good start and the 52-run stand for the third wicket was broken which turned the game on its head. Jasprit Bumrah pinned the RCB captain in front of the stumps and soon Maxwell became debutant Marco Jansen’s first IPL wicket. Shahbaz Ahmed threw his wicket in the pursuit of quick runs and in no time, RCB were reduced to 106/5 from 98/2.

AB de Villiers was at the other end watching all the mayhem and the man himself was struggling to get the ball rolling. To make things worse, Daniel Christian got out to leave the team reeling at 122/6 in the 17th over. However, the South African superstar teed off superbly to churn out runs off Trent Boult’s last over to bring the equation in control.

The 19th over from Jasprit Bumrah was crucial but De Villiers even got the better of him eking out 12 runs and it brought down the target to 7 runs off the last over. There was still the last twist left in the game and De Villiers got run out in the final over to leave his team to get two runs off the ball.

And the man of the moment Harshal Patel got them home off the last ball as celebrations started in their camp. However, one has to credit MI as well who left no stone unturned in taking the game to the last ball with their limited resources.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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