Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Mumbai Indians by 18 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, holding off a chase that reached 222/5 but never quite got away. Phil Salt set the tone with 78 off 36 balls, Virat Kohli made 50 and the pair added 120 for the opening stand before Bengaluru pushed on to 240/4.
Rajat Patidar kept the pressure on with 53 off 20 balls, reaching his fifty in 17 deliveries, and Tim David finished unbeaten on 34 as Bengaluru kept finding runs at the back end. Mumbai answered with 37 from Ryan Rickelton, 33 from Suryakumar Yadav, 40 from Hardik Pandya and an unbeaten 71 from Sherfane Rutherford, but Rohit Sharma retired hurt with a hamstring issue and the chase lost momentum when Suyash Sharma removed Rickelton and Tilak Varma in a crucial over.
The result belonged to a Sunday IPL double-header that had runs everywhere and little margin for error. On the same day at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Gujarat Titans beat Lucknow Super Giants by seven wickets after Prasidh Krishna produced career-best T20 figures of 4/28 to help restrict the home side to 164/8. Aiden Markram top-scored for Lucknow with 30, but Jos Buttler answered with 60 off 37 balls, including 11 boundaries, and Shubman Gill made 56 as Gujarat chased 165 in 18.4 overs after an 84-run partnership between the pair.
Buttler, who had been short on big scores in recent weeks, said after the match: “Been through a lean patch last couple of months but nice to get some good games… I’ve played for 15 years and I know what to do when I get in.” The line fits the day in Mumbai and in Ekana: once the top order got in, the scoring never really stopped. The weekend’s back-to-back double headers produced two strong chases, and the action was set to shift to Hyderabad on Monday for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Rajasthan Royals.
For Mumbai, the question was not whether the batting had firepower. It was whether the attack could survive a total of 240 and still close out the game after Rohit’s injury disrupted the chase. It could not. Bengaluru’s opener and Patidar did the damage early, and the final 18-run gap reflected a match that was decided by control at the death rather than a lack of runs.
