The inaugural match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) started with a bang.
The last over thriller had RCB trump MI at the Chepauk stadium by scoring a run off the final delivery to reach the target of 160 in 20 overs.
However, there were hilarious incidents in the nail-biting encounter and one such episode took place when Krunal Pandya while batting for MI in the first innings, saw his bat been broken into two.
It all happened when RCB debutant Kyle Jamieson bowled a toe crushing yorker to Pandya in the 19th over.
The MI left-hander, who was batting on 6, was able to bring down his bat in time but couldn’t avoid the damage as his bat broke into two pieces with the handle in his hand and the willow falling apart.
Here is the video:
New bat please 🙂 pic.twitter.com/9OyHfGwvjO
— Kumar Sourav (@AdamDhoni1) April 10, 2021
A tweet fest started on Twitter where netizens seemed to enjoy the moment.
Biscuits after taking a dip in hot tea pic.twitter.com/gpxzrJzEKd
— Sagar (@sagarcasm) April 9, 2021
Krunal Pandya after playing Jamieson pic.twitter.com/KWusVjZwu1
— Bake Jeralta (@aatanayagan) April 9, 2021
Bat tod performance by Krunal Pandya #RCBvsMI
— PRINCESS✨ (@PriyankaAnomaly) April 9, 2021
As broke as Krunal Pandya's bat rn #MIvsRCB
— Yaamini Shah (@YaaminiShah) April 9, 2021
https://twitter.com/satwikmufc/status/1380546160432058370
https://twitter.com/ShontyBadmashh/status/1380546108217192453
Pandya had hit Jamieson for a four in the previous ball, and the New Zealand cricketer responded with a thud.
The 30-year-old, however, couldn’t continue batting for long as Harshal Patel dismissed him in the next over when he hit a ball on the leg side and was caught by Dan Christian.
Even though MI were looking to cross the 180 run-mark, RCB restricted them to 159 in 20 overs.
In reply, RCB took the game to the last ball and Patel, who earlier shined with the ball, scored a single to seal the game for his franchise.
Patel was awarded the man of the match for his brilliant fifer. This was the first time that Patel had taken five wickets in a T20 game. He conceded only 27 runs in 4 overs while achieving this feat.
The last over of the first innings saw brilliant, restrictive bowling by the Haryana-born pacer as he gave away only one run and took three wickets. He was also on his way to a hat-trick but unfortunately missed it by a ball.
