Mumbai Indians Bowled In Good Areas, Stopped Us 20 Runs Short: Virat Kohli

Mumbai Indians, on Wednesday, beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets to return to winning ways. With 8 wins from 12 games, the defending champions not only consolidated their position at the top but have also all but assured their place in the playoffs.

Asked to bat first, RCB posted 164 for 5 in the stipulated 20 overs. At 129 for 2 after 15 overs, the Bangalore-based was looking set to score more than 180. However, they could only manage 35 runs in the final five overs while losing five wickets.

Devdutt Padikkal was the top-scorer with the bat, scoring 74 off 45 balls with the help of 12 fours and a six. He also added 71 runs with Josh Philippe for the first wicket to give RCB a solid start before the middle-order batsmen failed to deliver. For Mumbai, Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers for MI, taking 3 for just 14 off his four overs.

In reply, Mumbai Indians chased down the total with five balls to spare. In-form Suryakumar Yadav made the difference with the bat. He held firm from one end and played an unbeaten knock of 79 off just 43 balls to power the defending champions to an impressive win.

Virat Kohli’s reaction:

Speaking at the end of the game, Virat Kohli rued his team’s failure to bat well in the last five overs while admitting that RCB were 20 runs short. He also stated that the RCB bowlers failed to execute their plans early on while giving credit to the Mumbai batsmen.

“It was a strange phase of batting (the last five overs of the RCB innings). Everything went to the fielders and these kind of things happen. They bowled in good areas in the last 5 overs and stopped us 20 runs short. We were in the game until the 17th over and that was a decent effort by our bowlers,” said Virat Kohli.

“It’s basically up to the gut of the captain and the conditions, we thought Dale and Morris for initial swing, and Washy in the powerplay. We needed a few wickets there, but their batsmen did a good job,” he added.

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