Follow UsRoyal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have finally broken the curse of the Wankhede, as they managed to defeat Mumbai Indians (MI) on their home ground by 12 runs in a close fought thriller of a game. MI lost a game against RCB at their home ground after 3619 days, with their last loss coming in 2015.
After being sent in to bat first, RCB notched up a really good total of 221/5 on the board courtesy of two splendid half-centuries from former skipper Virat Kohli (67 off 42) and current skipper Rajat Patidar (64 off 32).
Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal didn’t let the run-scoring suffer at all despite Phil Salt falling early. Even Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t spared, who bowled his first over of the day against Kohli in the third over of the innings, and the in-form wasted no time in dispatching his India teammate for a maximum on the second ball of the over and collected 10 runs in that over. RCB scored 73/1 in the second-best powerplay total against MI at Wankhede Stadium in IPL.
In the end, Jitesh Sharma helped them cross 200 and notch up a competitive total on the board.
In the chase, MI lost two wickets for 38 in the fourth over, and after that, Will Jacks and Suryakumar Yadav were batting well, which put MI in a good position to chase the target by building a platform. They had done a decent job to be at 79/2 in 9.3 overs, but that’s when Krunal Pandya dished out a surprise bouncer to Jacks, who hit it straight towards Virat Kohli at backward square leg and was caught out.
However, even after Suryakumar also followed Jacks to the pavilion soon, skipper Hardik Pandya played a splendid knock of 42 off just 15 deliveries and gave MI a great chance to chase down the target with Tilak Varma also on the crease. However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Varma, and Krunal then ensured that MI didn’t get another chance at the target and fell 12 runs short of the target.
This is MI’s fourth loss in five games, and they are currently eighth on the table. Meanwhile, RCB have won three out of four games in IPL 2025 and are in third place on the points table.