MI v RCB: Top 5 Performers of the Match!

Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers battled out in a last ball thriller at Chennai which kick started the 2021 edition of IPL. There was no half-century recorded by batsmen of either teams. Both teams had more than one performer that help the match swing both ways as no one was sure about the winner until the last ball was bowled.

Here are our Top 5 picks for the performers in MI v RCB fixture.

Chris Lynn

The Aussie smasher made his Mumbai Indians debut and put on a good show. He missed his half century by 1 run but his stay was quite productive as he kept counter attacking the RCB bowling attack.

Lynn scored 49 runs in 35 balls with the help of 4 fours and 3 sixes. 3 sixes is the most by any batsman in the first match. He also took 2 crucial catches that of Washington Sundar and Glenn Maxwell.

Harshal Patel

The RCB all-rounder found a new skill set as a death bowler for the team. He became the first ever bowler to pick a 5-wicket haul against Mumbai Indians in the history of Indian Premier League.

Harshal’s 5-27 included the wickets of Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Padya, Kieron Pollard and Marco Jansen. His spell was decisive in Mumbai Indians being restricted to 159-9 in 20 overs.

He also scored the winning runs for RCB in a thrilling finish at Chennai.

Glenn Maxwell

Maxwell made his RCB debut and produced a match defining knock for the team. The Aussie batsman walked in to bat at No.4 ahead of AB de Villiers. He kept the run flow going with his big hits.

Maxwell scored 39 runs in 28 balls with the help of 3 fours and 2 sixes. This is a great improvement since last season where he couldn’t score a maximum and had a season highest score of 32.

His quick run scoring soothed the required run rate to achievable levels for the team.

Marco Jansen

20 year old South African all-rounder Marco Jansen displayed his skill at the toughest T20 stage on debut. He was the X-factor for Mumbai Indians and was one of the main reasons the match was not decided until the last ball.

Jansen picked the wickets of Glenn Maxwell and Shahbaz Nadeem in his 3^rd over in which he conceded just 3 runs to pull Mumbai Indians back in to the race. He kept his nerves bowling the last over against the likes of AB de Villiers who was in destructive mood.

It was quite evident captain Rohit Sharma was satisfied with the effort put up by the youngster.

AB de Villiers

The Proteas batsman showed he has still got it with his free-flowing run scoring skill. AB’s 48 in 27 balls had 4 fours and 2 sixes -the boundaries came at a very important stage for the team when the required run rate bounced over 10 runs per over.

de Villiers walked in to bat at No.5 for RCB with the team requiring 61 runs to win in 45 balls. The team kept losing wickets at regular intervals as he kept scoring to bring back the team to advantageous situation.

Honorable Mentions:

New ball bowlers Kyle Jamieson and Jasprit Bumrah contributed for their respective teams. Jamieson picked the price wicket of Suryakumar Yadav which stemmed the run flow for Mumbai Indians drastically. Bumrah picked the high profile wickets of Virat Kohli and Dan Christian to pull Mumbai back in to the game.