Mumbai Indians hosted Royal Challengers Bangalore on a placid Wankhede pitch. MI is looking for their first win in the tournament in their 4th match, while RCB are looking to get onto the winning wagon, after the drubbing by RR at home in their last match.
Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to field first. Rohit Sharma confirmed that Akila Dananjaya made way for Mitchell McClenaghan in the team. On the other hand, RCB made three changes as Sarfraz, Anderson, and Siraj came into the playing XI at the expense of Negi, McCullum, and Kulwant respectively.
MI received instant jolts as Umesh Yadav dislodged the off stump of Suryakumar Yadav on the first ball of the match and then did the same to Ishan Kishan, leaving MI 0/2 on the first two balls of the match. He became only the second bowler to do so in IPL, after Praveen Kumar, who removed Aniruddha Srikanth and Suresh Raina, while bowling for KXIP v CSK in IPL 2011.
After that, it was carnage by Evin Lewis and Rohit Sharma. Lewis smashed his first fifty in IPL, 65 in 42 balls with 5 sixes and 6 fours. Anderson got him after he had added 108 runs for the 3rd wicket. Krunal Pandya too got out for 15, as Rohit Sharma started to get into the fifth gear.
The best bowler for RCB was Umesh Yadav, who took 2/36 in four overs.
Rohit Sharma scored 94 off 52 balls with 5 sixes and 10 fours, getting out to Anderson, caught by Woakes on the penultimate ball of the 20th over. Mumbai Indians smashed RCB bowler for 213 runs in 20 overs.
Twitter loved the way Rohit ‘hitman’ Sharma smashed the RCB bowlers to all parts of the ground and showed their love via tweets.
Here are some tweets:
An absolute cricket delight to see Rohit bat and have Kohli and AB De Villiers fight for supremacy in the field.. some class in the 30 range circle ⭕️
— Ramiz Raja (@iramizraja) April 17, 2018
Umesh Yadav first few deliveries were conversely as good as his hair style!
— Iain O'Brien (@iainobrien) April 17, 2018
Looks like another high scoring game at Wankhede @mipaltan vs @RCBTweets @IPL
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) April 17, 2018
But Rohit is still key wicket for RCB. First time he's got going this season and looking ominous!
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 17, 2018
Dream Start for Umesh in the city of dreams....slightly surprised with the field placements thereafter. Rohit looking sublime. #MIvRCB #IPL
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) April 17, 2018
Virat has always said he’s a huge fan of Rohit’s batting. Nice of Rohit to find form with Virat around #MIvRCB
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) April 17, 2018
This is the reason why #virat is a fan of @ImRo45 ‘s batting.. #hitmanisback #MIVRCB #VIVOIPL
— Prragyan Ojha (@pragyanojha) April 17, 2018
Couple of good overs in from #RCB. On a ground like this, even that can affect a game. Remember even 200 isn't safe....
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 17, 2018