MUMBAI: Royal Challengers Bengaluru survived a batting blitz from Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya to win a thriller by 12 runs on Monday in the IPL and spoil Jasprit Bumrah’s return from an injury.
Mumbai named Bumrah in the XI as the India bowler returned three months after he missed the final day of the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney due to a back injury.
Bengaluru’s Virat Kohli and skipper Rajat Patidar hit 67 and 64 to steer Bengaluru to 221-5 after being invited to bat first at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
In reply, Pandya smashed a 15-ball 42 and Tilak Varma struck 56, but five-time champions Mumbai finished on 209-9 for their fourth defeat in five matches this season.
Hardik’s elder brother and Bengaluru spinner Krunal Pandya held his nerve to bowl the final over when Mumbai needed 19 runs but lost three wickets including two on the first two balls.
Krunal, a left-arm spinner, returned figures of 4-45 in Bengaluru’s third win in four matches.
Patidar was named player of the match, but said, “This award goes to the bowling unit. It is not easy to stop any team, especially at this ground, and the way they have done it, was incredible.”
“The way the fast bowlers executed their plans was amazing. The way KP (Krunal Pandya) bowled that last over, it was not easy and the way he bowled was amazing. The way he has shown the courage was fantastic.”
Mumbai slipped to 99-4 including former captain Rohit Sharma out for 17, but Hardik and the left-handed Varma put on 89 runs to turn on the heat with fours and sixes.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Varma and then Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood took down Pandya for his second wicket in the 19th over to derail the chase.
Left-arm medium-pace bowler Yash Dayal also took two key wickets including Rohit, bowled for 17 after he came in as an impact substitute, and Suryakumar Yadav for 28.
Earlier, Hardik took two wickets and Bumrah registered figures of 0-29 in Bengaluru’s mammoth total as Kohli and Patidar bossed the opposition bowling.
“Having him (Bumrah) makes any team in the world very special,” Hardik said of his pace ace. “He came in and did his job, very happy to have him.”
Kohli lost opening partner Phil Salt on the second ball of the match off New Zealand left-arm quick Trent Boult, but soon took on the bowlers with regular boundaries.
He put on 91 runs for the second wicket with left-hander Devdutt Padikkal, who hit 37 off 22 balls, and reached his fifty off 29 balls with a six.
Padikkal fell but Kohli put together 48 runs with Patidar until Hardik hit back.
Hardik sent back Kohli and then England’s Liam Livingstone, out for a duck, in the space of four deliveries.
The runs kept coming as Patidar was joined by Jitesh Sharma, who hit an unbeaten 40, and the two hammered 69 runs off 27 balls.
Jitesh finished with a flourish in his 19-ball knock laced with two fours and four sixes despite a disciplined last over from Bumrah.
Bengaluru edge Mumbai to spoil Bumrah’s return in IPL
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Bengaluru edge Mumbai to spoil Bumrah’s return in IPL
- Virat Kohli and skipper Rajat Patidar hit 67 and 64 to steer Bengaluru to 221-5
- Hardik Pandya smashed a 15-ball 42 and Tilak Varma struck 56 as Mumbai finished on 209-9
Smylie wins on LIV Golf debut, leads Ripper GC to team title in Riyadh
- Jon Rahm and Torque GC finish second in the individual and team competitions respectively
RIYADH: Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith believes his new teammate Elvis Smylie can one day become the best golfer in the world. After the 23-year-old Australian produced four sizzling rounds to win on his LIV Golf debut, the rest of the league may very well share the same sentiment.
Smylie capped off an impressive first week under the lights at Roshn Group LIV Golf Riyadh, shooting a final-round bogey-free 8-under 64 on Saturday to hold off a hard-charging Jon Rahm by one stroke. He also led the Rippers to the team title, as the Aussies swept both trophies going into their biggest tournament of the season at LIV Golf Adelaide next week.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Smylie, who officially joined the team last month. “I really didn’t know what to expect this week. Playing at night is obviously a whole different ballgame out here. I wanted to come out here and make a statement. I wanted to prove that I’m one of the best out here, and I feel like I’ve done that. It’s only up from here.”
Smith agreed. “The crazy thing is I still think he’s got a lot of improving to go, which is pretty scary, really, for the rest of us, because he waxed us this week. I genuinely think he can be the best golfer in the world. He’s got all the tools of the trade. He just needs to keep doing what he’s doing and knuckle down.”
With the win, Smylie earns the projected points allotted by the Official World Golf Ranking to the winner of this week’s LIV Golf tournament. The OWGR announced earlier this week that points will be awarded for LIV Golf tournaments this season to the top 10 and ties. Smylie entered the week ranked 134th and is expected to move up significantly with the victory.
Smylie’s winning score of 24 under is the lowest in league history, a byproduct perhaps of the league’s adjusted format from 54 to 72 holes. He also beat the biggest field in LIV Golf history after an increase from 54 to 57 players this season.
But more impressive than the raw numbers was Smylie’s sublime play, especially with a new blade putter. “Everything looked like a bucket for me, which is nice,” said Smylie, who ranked third in the field in strokes gained putting.
He needed a hot putter down the stretch to create some separation from the field, then withstand the last-ditch rally by Rahm, the Legion XIII captain and two-time LIV Golf individual champion.
Rahm started the day two shots behind co-leaders Smylie and Peter Uihlein and was three strokes behind when Smylie birdied the par-4 12th. But the Spaniard closed fast with birdies on five of his last six holes, including the last four.
He drove the green at the 396-yard par-4 18th but could not convert the eagle putt. Still, his final birdie put the finishing touches on a 9-under bogey-free 63, the lowest round of the week, and reduced Smylie’s lead to one.
Smylie, however, was not aware of the slim margin until hitting his approach shot at the 18th that left him on the edge of the green.
“I actually didn’t know that I had to two-putt the last green,” he said. “I thought I would have had a two-shot lead going into 18. But as soon as I was walking up the green, I saw that I only had one, so I’m like, I’ve got to clutch up here and make sure to get this up-and-down.”
Rahm, who shot a final-round 11-under 60 in his last regular-season LIV Golf tournament in Indianapolis last year to clinch his second consecutive season-long title, pointed to his failure to make birdie at the par-5 sixth and a poor approach shot at the par-4 11th as missed opportunities. Even so, he was pleased with making a run to earn his fifth runner-up finish and 25th top-10 result in 27 regular-season LIV Golf appearances.
“It was a fantastic round of golf, shot 9-under,” he said. “Elvis had a great day and a two-shot lead. If anything, if there’s one or two shots to look at, I’ve got to go to earlier in the week.”
RangeGoats GC’s Uihlein finished third after shooting a 67 for 21 under, while Fireballs GC’s David Puig and 4Aces GC’s Thomas Pieters shot 65s to share fourth place with Torque GC’s Abraham Ancer.
The team competition turned into a battle between Ripper and Torque. The Australians started off fast, with Marc Leishman beginning his round with four straight birdies; the team collectively was 11 under through their first six holes.
Torque responded with Ancer, making his first start for his new team after four years with Fireballs GC, and Sebastian Munoz each shooting 66.
But the 64s by Smylie and Lucas Herbert were supported by Smith’s 65 and Leishman’s 69 to produce a fourth-round team score of 26 under, the third-best single round team score in league history. Ripper’s tournament total of 69 under is a league record as they won their fifth regular-season team title by three shots.
