Had Alzarri Joseph been a part of the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Lasith Malinga would not have got a game but an injury to the Caribbean pacer saw the Sri Lankan captain making his comeback to the playing XI.
Not only just he made his comeback, but also delivered a Man of the Match performance as Malinga scalped four wickets for 31 runs in his four overs.
Out of four, two wickets came in the final over in form of Akshdeep Nath and Pawan Negi.
The final over of the game really proved to the real game-changer as RCB just managed nine runs in it.
AB de Villiers welcomed Malinga with a six but he got run-out on the next ball.
On the next three deliveries, Malinga did not give a run and only went for two runs on the final delivery.
The three wickets in the final over prevented RCB from touching the mark of 180, that was a big boost for MI.
After the win, Malinga talked about his struggles over past few days as he has made two trips to Sri Lanka to play domestic cricket.
“It’s been tough for me in the last couple of weeks, because I had to go back to Sri Lanka to play domestic cricket. But I realized whenever I play I got to give my 100 percent and today I did my best and we won the game. We have to prepare mentally for this kind of a tournament. Skill-wise you obviously know what to do. AB is a dangerous player, so we try to minimize the boundaries against him. When he got out, I used my variations to take wickets,” he said.
The first wicket partnership of 71 between Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock had a crucial role to play in the home side chasing the total easily.
Out of 71, both the batsmen scored 67 runs right in the first six overs.
As the players mentioned in the post-match presser, it was crucial for MI to go for runs right in the first six overs as things changed a bit during the course of the game.
The ball started spinning more in the second innings but MI did the job at their home.
With this win, Mumbai Indians climbed to the third position in the points table as they now have five wins in eight matches.
Royal Challengers Bangalore are placed at the last position and having registered seven defeats, they now have bleak chances to make it to the next stage of the tournament.