Seamer Harshal Patel's five-wicket haul (5/27) helped Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beat Mumbai Indians (MI) by two wickets in a last ball thriller in the opening match of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) season at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday.
Patel ran through MI's middle and lower order to restrict them to 159/9 after they were cruising at 86/1 midway through their innings.
RCB were then powered by a 27-ball 48 from AB de Villiers and a 28-ball 39 from Glenn Maxwell even as they made heavy weather of the chase, winning it off the last ball of the match even though they had been set up well by a 52-run third-wicket stand between skipper Virat Kohli (33 off 29) and Maxwell.
RCB batsman Glenn Maxwell hits reverse sweep six against MI (Source: IPLt20.com)
MI opener Chris Lynn plays a shot against RCB (Source: IPLt20.com)
RCB pacer Kyle Jamieson in action against MI (Source: IPLt20.com)
RCB pacer Harshal Patel successfully appeals for the lbw of Ishan Kishan of Mumbai Indians (Source: IPLt20.com)
MI pacer Jasprit Bumrah celebrates after picking up a wicket of RCB skipper Virat Kohli (Source: IPLt20.com)
RCB batsman AB de Villiers plays a shot against MI in IPL 2021 opener (Source: IPLt20.com)