Royal Challengers Bengaluru 167 for 8 (Krunal 73, Bethell 27, Bosch 4-26, Chahar 2-33) beat Mumbai Indians 166 for 7 (Tilak 57, Dhir 47, Bhuvneshwar 4-23) by two wickets

Bhuvi magic

From the start it was evident that hard lengths would be extremely difficult to negotiate on this pitch. From these lengths, the ball stuck and jumped on some occasions, bringing the leading edge into play, and at other times it skidded and kept low.

After RCB opted to bowl in their first match at their second home for the season, Bhuvneshwar struck in the first over with a hard-length ball. It hit high on Rickelton’s bat as he looked to punch over mid-off, and all he managed to do was hit it to the fielder.

But there was more to Bhuvneshwar’s magic on the night than merely his use of the pitch. His second wicket came off one of the great balls of his IPL career: a knuckle-ball outswinger that made Rohit Sharma reach for the drive, which he edged to the keeper. Next ball, he went back to a traditional good length and closer to the stumps, and found late, late swing to get Suryakumar Yadav nicking to slip for a golden duck.

MI were 28 for 3 in three overs.

Tilak and Dhir rebuild, but MI finish with a whimper

With the pitch behaving as it did, Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma began an old-school rebuild, knowing that even 180 would be an excellent total. And they set up perfectly for that final push, putting on 82 off 57 balls.

But RCB dismissed both just when they were looking dangerous. Dhir had just struck Rasikh for a pair of pleasing back-foot fours through the off side when a shooter did him in. Then, in the 18th over, Bhuvneshwar dismissed Tilak, who played on while looking for the scoop over short fine leg. It took away one of MI’s most dangerous death-overs hitters with two overs remaining; they only scored 11 runs off those two overs, as Josh Hazlewood and Rasikh kept extracting misbehaviour from hard lengths.

Chahar and Bosch even the contest

Virat Kohli had been out for a duck in RCB’s previous game, the victim of a peach from Prince Yadav. On Sunday he was out for a golden duck; this time he looked to impose himself on a wide outswinger from Deepak Chahar, but ended up mishitting it to mid-off.

Chahar was erratic – he conceded 14 in his first over, with Jacob Bethell putting him away for back-to-back fours off his first two balls – but continued to bowl good balls. In his second over, he sent down a jaffa that squared up Devdutt Padikkal and nicked him off, straightening after angling into the left-hander from round the wicket.

Then, in the final over of the powerplay, RCB lost their third wicket; this time, Corbin Bosch made full use of a pitch made for his strengths. He banged it in short, got the ball to hurry and cramp Rajat Patidar on the pull, and the top-edged ballooned to the keeper.

Krunal revives RCB’s innings

The fourth-wicket partnership of 55 was a study in contrasts. Bethell did not hit another boundary after the two he’d hit off Chahar at the start of his innings, and struggled to pierce the field while limping to a run-a-ball 27. At the other end, Krunal exuded a sense of certainty right from the time he pulled Bosch for six off just the third ball he faced.

His handling of spin was particularly crucial to how the chase unfolded. He used his reach to sweep and slog whenever the chance presented itself, and this may have made Suryakumar Yadav – standing in in the continued absence of Hardik Pandya with a back issue – hesitate to use Raghu Sharma, the legspinner MI had brought on as their Impact Player. Instead, he turned to Bawa’s military medium; his first over went for just eight runs, but Krunal and Jitesh Sharma took his second over, the 14th of RCB’s innings, for 16 runs.

That left RCB needing 57 off 36 balls.

A finish for the ages

Jitesh, coming into this game with an average of 8.00 for the season, played an important cameo, 18 off 12 including an eye-catching back-foot punch off Jasprit Bumrah in the 15th over, and a hooked six off Bosch in the 16th.

Just as the contest seemed to be tilting RCB’s way, though, Bosch hit back with two wickets in two balls. Jitesh sliced him into deep point’s hands, and Tim David fell for a first-baller, toe-ending an attempted pull to the keeper, undone by a ball that stopped on him. MI gained more control as Chahar conceded just six off the 17th over, using his slower bouncer expertly.

With 30 to get off the last three, and with Bumrah to bowl one of those three, the 18th over became crucial. And AM Ghazanfar nearly became a hero, inducing a mishit from Krunal only for Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma – converging from deep midwicket and long-on respectively – to mess up a possible relay catch via miscommunication.

Krunal was actively cramping at this stage, but he somehow found the reserves within him to hit two sixes off the next three balls, falling to the floor in agony after completing his shots. A third six off the final ball of the over would have left RCB needing 12 off 12, but this time Tilak judged and executed the running, juggling catch perfectly at long-on.

This meant Bumrah bowled the 19th to two new batters. And neither Romario Shepherd nor Rasikh had much of an answer to his mix of hard lengths and yorkers; only three came off the over, of which one was a leg bye.

It was the perfect assist. All that remained was for the final-over bowler to finish it off. But the three seamers had bowled out, and Suryakumar wasn’t going to use a spinner. So it was Bawa who stepped up, and he did a decent job under the circumstances; he overstepped once, and there were three wides, but these were the result of sticking to a wide-line plan. And Shepherd struggled against his round-the-wicket angle, losing shape while trying to muscle the ball, and he eventually fell off the third legal ball of the over, leaving Nos. 9 and 10 to score 10 off three balls.

On most days, you would back the bowling team to close it out. On this day, Bhuvneshwar was an irresistible force.