India and Mumbai Indians (MI) speedster Jasprit Bumrah lit up the Indian Premier League (IPL) by taking a five-wicket haul against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.

Bumrah finished the innings with figures of 5/21 in four overs. His economy rate was 5.20. He took the key wickets of openers Virat Kohli, Faf Du Plessis and later got scalps of Mahipal Lomror, Saurav Chauhan and Vijaykumar Vyshak.

In the post-match presentation, Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper Faf Du Plessis, said, “It is a tough pill to swallow - a combination of two things, very wet (the conditions with dew), They played really well, put the pressure on us and we made a lot of mistakes. We knew dew would be a factor, we might have needed to make 250-plus runs, but they made 196 look very less. We also lost a few moments and were going well when myself and Patidar were going, but they did come back well.”

“Every time you see him with the ball in his hand (on Jasprit Bumrah), you think you will have to put him under pressure. But he has so many skills, bowls well under pressure, he bowls with the same action and has a lot of variations. I think he has become even better under the guidance of Lasith Malinga (bowling coach). We would have loved if he was part of our team (smiles). We will have to find ways with the bat, get those big scores, we know our bowling is not our strongest suit, but we will have to find ways to manage it,” he added.

This was the first five-wicket haul against RCB in the history of IPL.

This was Bumrah’s second fifer in the IPL, making him join the elite company of bowlers with two five-wicket hauls in IPL- James Faulkner, Jaydev Unadkat and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Now, Bumrah has overtaken Ravindra Jadeja and Sandeep Sharma (26 scalps each) to become the bowler with the most wickets against RCB. Now, he has 29 wickets against RCB.

Bumrah has overtaken Harbhajan Singh to break into the top 10 wicket-takers in the league’s history.

In 125 matches, he has 155 wickets at an average of 22.56, with a strike rate of 18.46. His best bowling figures are 5/10. Harbhajan meanwhile has 150 wickets in 163 matches.

In the ongoing IPL 2024, Bumrah is now the Purple Cap holder with 10 wickets in five matches at an average of 11.90, with the best figures of 5/21.

MI opted to bowl first after winning the toss. After dismissing Virat (3) and Will Jacks (8) early, but Faf Du Plessis (61 in 40 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes) and Rajat Patidar (50 in 26 balls, with three fours and four sixes) revived RCB. The two put on a 82-run stand for the third wicket.

In the end, some fine finishing and shotmaking by Dinesh Karthik (53* in 23 balls, with five fours and four sixes) took RCB to 196/8 in 20 overs.

MI finished off the chase in 15.3 overs, ending at 199/3, with Hardik Pandya (21* in six balls, with three sixes) and Tilak Varma (16* in 10 balls, with three fours) unbeaten.

Scores: Mumbai Indians 199 for 3 (Kishan 69, Suryakumar 52, Rohit 38, Jacks 1-24) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru 196 for 8 (Du Plessis 61, Karthik 53*, Patidar 50, Bumrah 5-21) by 7 wickets.

Source: Qatar Tribune 

BDST: 1420 HRS, APR 12, 2024
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