Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 11 (ANI): Following his side’s loss to the Mumbai Indians (MI) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match, Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper Faf Du Plessis lauded Jasprit Bumrah for his five-wicket haul and said the RCB would have to win tosses and score more runs in order to tackle the dew factor.
Fiery half-centuries by Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav and a five-wicket haul by Jasprit Bumrah helped the Mumbai Indians (MI) seal a comprehensive seven-wicket win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) at Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.
In the post-match presentation, Faf said, “It is a tough pill to swallow – a combination of two things, very wet (the conditions with dew), I need to somehow win some tosses, secondly, they played really well, put the pressure on us and we made a lot of mistakes (especially during the powerplay). We knew dew would be a factor, we might have needed to make 250-plus runs, but they made 196 look very less. You know when there is dew coming, you will have to bat big, the ball was very wet, it was changed a few times and the bowlers struggled. We also lost a few moments and were going well when myself and Patidar were going, but they did come back well.”
“Every time you see him with the ball in his hand (on Jasprit Bumrah), you think you will have to put him under pressure. But he has so many skills, bowls well under pressure, he bowls with the same action and has a lot of variations. I think he has become even better under the guidance of Lasith Malinga (bowling coach). We would have loved if he was part of our team (smiles). We will have to find ways with the bat, get those big scores, we know our bowling is not our strongest suit, but we will have to find ways to manage it, we will have to be creative, go hard with the bat and make most of the first 4-5 overs with the bat,” added the skipper.
Coming to the match, MI opted to bowl first after winning the toss. After dismissing Virat (3) and Will Jacks (8) early, MI bowlers were smashed all over the park by skipper Faf Du Plessis (61 in 40 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes) and Rajat Patidar (50 in 26 balls, with three fours and four sixes). Both put on a 82-run stand for the third wicket. In the end, some fine finishing and shotmaking by Dinesh Karthik (53* in 23 balls, with five fours and four sixes) took RCB to 196/8 in 20 overs.
Besides Bumrah (5/21), Shreyas Gopal, Gerald Coetzee and Akash Madhwal also took a wicket each.
In the run chase, Ishan Kishan (69 in 34 balls, with seven fours and five sixes), Rohit Sharma (38 in 24 balls, with three fours and three sixes) and Suryakumar Yadav (52 in 19 balls, with five fours and four sixes) did not give RCB a chance to breathe and sealed the win in 15.3 overs.
Bumrah was given the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
Bumrah with his ruthless spell of 5-21 single-handedly sent RCB’s big names back to the pavilion, only highlighting his reputation as one of the best bowlers in the competition. Karthik (53)* with a scintillating half-century off just 21 deliveries lifted RCB to 196 while Rajat Patidar’s fifty played a crucial role in the team’s total. (ANI)
