Kedar Jadhav and Pawan Negi shared a 54-run partnership to help Royal Challengers Bangalore recover from a shaky start and post 162 for against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
Electing to bat first, the Royal Challengers went off to a decent start with Virat Kohli and Mandeep Singh adding 31 runs before the latter’s slog sweep went straight into the hands of Hardik Pandya at the deep mid-wicket.
Nine runs later, the visitors suffered another huge setback when their skipper departed courtesy of a soft dismissal off the bowling of Mitchell McClenaghan.
Travis Head and AB de Villiers then steadied the ship with a 45-run stand but three wickets inside 23 runs once again derailed their innings.
Krunal Pandya was the architect of that brief collapse. The left-arm spinner first sent back Head before accounting for de Villiers who was looking in his elements and had already raced to 43 off 26 balls with the help of three fours and as many sixes.
The next to return to the hut was Shane Watson after being clean bowled by Jasprit Bumrah.
Kedar Jadhav and Pawan Negi then took the onus on themselves to steer their side to a challenging total. The fifty stand was broken on the fourth ball of the final over when Negi was dismissed by McClenaghan for 23-ball 35 run knock. On the very next ball, Jadhav departed too after scoring 28 off 22 balls.
Here is how Twitter reacted to the innings:
Hot one here today for Match 38 of @IPL at Wankhde Stadium in @mipaltan fortress. Can @RCBTweets pull off a victory??? pic.twitter.com/meZVCHiBPD
— Matthew Hayden AM (@HaydosTweets) May 1, 2017
Pawan Negi smashing Lasith Malinga.
What a time to be alive. #IPL
— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) May 1, 2017
Gritty Negi and Jadhav breathed some life into match with lusty blows in death overs. Without a good start 163 may yet be tricky for Mumbai
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 1, 2017
#MIvRCB
He : i love you!
She : No,sorry i am already committed!
He : ok, cool! ?
She : not disappointed of rejection??
He : No,i am RCB fan?— over the wicket! (@nikhilv23) May 1, 2017
Once Shane Watson was one of the best all-rounders in T20/ODI cricket. Now he is nothing more than Australia's Stuart Binny #IPL
— Shubh Aggarwal (@shubh_chintak) May 1, 2017
https://twitter.com/uthulk99/status/859012612771635205
#MIvRCB RCB stands for Regular Collapse in Batting
— D'vil deep (@bdmas_boy) May 1, 2017
Audience after #ABDevilliers got out. #MIvRCB pic.twitter.com/z5TEphg5gq
— The Viral Fever (@TheViralFever) May 1, 2017
4! That's fourth time Krunal Pandya has got @ABdeVilliers17 out! #IPL Well done.
— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) May 1, 2017
RCB's top order struggle unending. Unless ABD turns on vintage magic…
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 1, 2017
RCB's tag line #PlayBold but that should be #playBowled . Poor #RCB
. Well played #MI . #MIvRCB— Aritra Paul (@AritraPaul20) May 1, 2017