Mumbai Indians bowlers were on top in the death overs against Royal Challengers Bangalore, as the hosts crumbled down to a par score after a solid start.
Royal Challengers managed only 167/7 which could be a par score, considering the poor form of their bowling.
Having won the toss and elected to field first, Mumbai Indians were quite good in keeping the openers silent. Manan Vohra was quite effective in countering Mumbai bowlers. But Quinton de Kock struggled during his innings.
Brendon McCullum immediately made his presence felt in the game. He was drafted after AB de Villiers was unavailable once again due to illness.
The former Kiwi international played an impressive inning and was looking good in the middle. But, he got dismissed for a brilliant fielding effort by Hardik Pandya.
However, the 18th over bowled by Pandya yielded Mumbai Indians three wickets, which changed the momentum of the game. The all-rounder managed to pick the wickets of Virat Kohli, Mandeep Singh and Washington Sundar.
It held Royal Challengers down to a par score, as they crumbled in the death overs once again. But, New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grand Homme got three sixes in the final over to take the score to a par 167 on a sticky wicket.
Here is how Twitter reacted to RCB’s innings
24 runs off the final over. Superb finish from Colin de Grandhomme! Proper madness stuff. RCB are right in this.
— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) May 1, 2018
SRH will happily defend this. Can RCB emulate SRH to keep their campaign alive?
— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) May 1, 2018
Colin de Grandhomme can bat! ? #RCB
— Rahul Selvam (@iRahulSelvam) May 1, 2018
Atlast Colin de grandhomme wake up #RCBvMI #IPL2018
— Dhayal (@Dayal9505) May 1, 2018
Colin de Grandhomme is God
— Abhishek (@ImAbhishek7_) May 1, 2018
It is around that back of a length area, where the ball is sticking.
— Bharath Ramaraj (@Fancricket12) May 1, 2018
W W 1 1 . W
Wicket of Virat KohliIs it Hardik Pandya's birthday today?
— Shubh Aggarwal (@shubh_chintak) May 1, 2018
Virat Kohli back to top in IPL leading run scorer list…
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) May 1, 2018
Watch @imVkohli bat in difficult conditions. Watch him dominate spinners on a pitch lesser batsmen would struggle to put bat on ball. Different class #RCBvMI
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) May 1, 2018
Superb by Hardik Pandya to run out McCullum. Mumbai get the important breakthrough they've been seeking for a while
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 1, 2018
When AB comes in, put on de Kock on bench and keep playing Baz.
— Shubh Aggarwal (@shubh_chintak) May 1, 2018
Brendon McCullum hits RCB's 1000th Six in IPL history…
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) May 1, 2018
Not a great pitch for strokeplay. But @RCBTweets must still be wanting 180 or thereabouts to hedge against their as-yet shallow bowling. Kohli not getting his timing right, but fighting on — with some luck. Btwn him& McCullum, one must bat thru #ReinventYourGame #RCBvMI
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 1, 2018
Kohli wants a piece of that ball today 🙂
— Bharath Ramaraj (@Fancricket12) May 1, 2018
Nothing more thrilling as a six as Brendon McCullum's scoop over the keeper.
— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) May 1, 2018
De Kock has been a disappointment for RCB. I would have replaced him with Parthiv and picked another overseas all rounder. #IPL
— cricBC (@cricBC) May 1, 2018