Chasing a big total of 222, former Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma got the five-time champions to a fiery start. Thus, to curb the Hitman, Rajat Patidar decided to hand over the new ball to Yash Dayal rather than Josh Hazlewood.
While Dayal got smacked for a couple of boundaries by Rohit, he got his revenge on the fourth ball of the second over by cleaning up the star batter.
It was clear that Patidar opted for Dayal to exploit Rohit’s sickness against left-arm pacers and no doubt, it yielded results.
Interestingly, after the wicket fell, Virender Sehwag on comms suggested that Virat Kohli could have been the mastermind behind the decision as he was seen explaining Rajat Patidar at length about something just before MI got out to bat.
Notably, Rohit Sharma’s struggles against left-arm pacers (LAP) once again came to the fore as this was the 12th time he was dismissed since 2024 in the shortest format. In contrast, he was dismissed by right-arm pacers (RAP) just four times in the same span.
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Speaking about the MI vs RCB match, the visitors produced a stellar batting display, posting a towering total of 221 for 5 in 20 overs.
The innings witnessed superb fifties from Rajat Patidar (64 off 32), Virat Kohli (67 off 42) and quickfire cameos from Devdutt Padikkal (37 off 22) and Jitesh Sharma (40 off 19).
At the time of writing this report, Mumbai Indians have begun with the chase. The MI scoreboard read 52 for 2 in 5 overs with Suryakumar Yadav and Will Jacks currently batting in the middle.
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