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In a bid to remain in contention for a playoff spot, both the Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangaluru will lock horns on Thursday, April 10, in what appears to be a virtual knockout in IPL 2024.
There is still a lot of cricket to play but a loss here means recovering from their respective positions in the points table won't be an easy task for either side. That's why this MI-RCB encounter becomes too much of a critical game for both sides.
Both MI and RCB have their own share of issues, but the latter seems to be plagued by the horror of a mini-auction last year, which saw them shoot themselves in the foot, depleting their already weak bowling attack. The cumulative failure of the batting line-up has cost RCB in as many as four games.
There's no doubt that firepower in both teams' batting departments is scary for any bowling attack, but only MI has enjoyed the belligerence of it (although inconsistent). Therefore, the spotlight will be on bowlers from both sides to restrict their respective opponents to as low a total as possible.
RCB's 4-1 record against MI in their last five encounters also suggests that it's the bowling that will decide the fate of the game between the two batting powerhouses.
We look at some of the best bowling performances in MI-RCB matches.
#5 Lasith Malinga, 4/31, Wankhede, IPL 2019
It was all going in favor of RCB till the 17th over in the IPL 2019 MI-RCB encounter, with AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali going all guns blazing against the Mumbai bowlers, clobbering 144 runs together.
The MI skipper brought back Lasith Malinga, and that changed the complexion of the game. Malinga not only dismissed Moeen Ali and Marcus Stoinis in the same over but also gave away just 15 runs in his last two overs, which resulted in RCB managing only 171 runs in 20 overs. Malinga finished his fine spell with figures of 4/31.
#4 Dilhara Fernando, 4/18, Chinnaswamy, IPL 2008
On a placid batting wicket at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in the inaugural season of the IPL, Dilhara Fernando turned the game on its head in his first two overs.
Brought in as the first change bowler in the fifth over, Fernando got Mark Boucher caught behind with his cutter angling away from the right-hander. In the same over, he bounced out Shreevats Goswami to put the hosts on his back foot.
In his next over, Fernando dismissed Misbah-ul-Haq to put his side in the driving seat. RCB could not recover from this spell and could only manage to score 122/9, with Fernando finishing with 4/18.
#3 Harshal Patel, 4/17, Dubai, IPL 2021
On a slightly two-paced surface in Dubai in IPL 2021, the RCB batters struggled to get going with their stroke-making and could only score 165 runs thanks to a brilliant counterattacking half-century from Glenn Maxwell.
While the score was par considering the surface, MI had enough in their arsenal to chase this total down.
When openers Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan added 57 runs in the powerplay, RCB were in dire need of breakthroughs. They also needed to stop the run flow to put pressure back on MI.
Harshal Patel did the latter, which resulted in MI losing the plot and losing wickets at regular intervals, with Patel picking up four of these. It was the inspirational spell of 4/17 from Harshal Patel that saw MI get bowled out for 111 runs.
#2 Samuel Badree, 4/9, Chinnaswamy, IPL 2017
On a sluggish and aversive Chinnaswamy surface in IPL 2017, Samuel Badree almost won the game for RCB against MI.
Had it not been for the stubborn partnership of 93 runs between Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya, RCB almost defended their 142 runs against a strong MI batting line-up.
Chasing 143, MI lost Jos Buttler early on but knew the run rate was never going to be the problem and they only had to play out the spinners to go after the pacers.
But Badree did the unthinkable; he scalped Parthiv Patel, Mitchell McClenaghnan, and Rohit Sharma in three consecutive balls to register an IPL hat-trick to push MI to 7/4 in the third over. He later dismissed Nitish Rana to finish his fantabulous spell of 4/9.
#1 Harshal Patel, 5/27, IPL 2021, Chepauk
MI were taking the game away from RCB in the IPL 2021 opener at Chepauk, scoring 135 runs in just 16 overs on a two-paced surface. This was when Harshal Patel exhibited a fine display of death-over bowling to turn the tides of the game.
With Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan going berserk, Harshal used his variations and the surface to his benefit to outfox the batters.
His loopy-dipping slower ones and Yorkers were too hot to handle for the MI batting line-up as they couldn't bat freely in the death overs and scored only 24 runs in the last four overs. Harshal returned with figures of 5/27 in this game.
