Tilak Varma’s sphinix-like knock helps MI post 171/7

BD Naraayannkar

Bengaluru, April 2: (UNI) An unbeaten 84 off 46 balls by Tilak Varma helped Mumbai Indians post a competetive 171/7 in match 5 of the 2023 IPL at Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Sunday.
It was sphinx-like knock from Varma as the chips of Mumbai Indians was down, wriggling in deep hole at 20/3, and adding salt to their wounds further was when they lost Suryakumar Yadav at 48/4. Then Varma walked in and stood tall and single-handedly steered his side to a pretty good total.
How valuable the innings was would only be known at the end of the match, but Varma showed his temprament and skill to his fans.
Failures for Mumbai Indians’ big guns put tremendous pressure on Mumbai Indians, thanks to right-arm leggie Karn Sharma and pacer Michael Bracewell’s bowling in the middle.
Battling all odds, however, Mumbai Indians produced 60 runs in last four overs and turned the tables in their favour, thanks to handy cameos from Nehal Wadhera and Arshad Khan. But, Varma stole the show.
RCB will be disappointed to have let things slip away, but they know with their batting, they can chase this down.
Sending Mumbai Indians in to bat, Mohammad Siraj started with a two- run over and succeeded in taking Ishan Kishan off the field after two overs.
Reece Topley then knocked over Cameron Green. Mumbai Indians would have been serious trouble, but Rohit Sharma was dropped on one run after Dinesh Kartikh and Siraj collided.
However, Rohit did not last long. He was caught behind by Karthik off Akash Deep without adding further runs.
Mumbai Indians were tottering at 29/3 in the first powerplay.
Bad news struck RCB after ReceeTopley injured his shoulder and went off the field. Luck also betrayed Mumbai Indians as they lost Suryakumar who got off to a good start, but Michael Bracewell got the better off him.
SKY had scored 15 off 16 balls.
RCB spurned a review as Wadhera carried on, and Varma provided some stability to Mumbai Indians. Wadhera smashed Karn Sharma for two consecutive sixes, but the right-arm leggie took an instant revenge packing him off to the dugout.
At the end of 15 overs, Mumbai Indians were 111/6.