Mumbai: Phil Salt found his touch with a 36-ball 78 to power Royal Challengers Bengaluru to an18-run win against the Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League 2026 game at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Skipper Rajat Patidar hammered 53 in 20 balls after Virat Kohli scored 50 in 38 balls. Tim David (34*, 16b) finished in style to power RCB to 240 for 4 in 20 overs.
Bengaluru spinners Suyansh Sharma (2 for 47) and Krunal Pandya (1 for 26) bowled well in a high-scoring game, and impact player Rasikh Salam (1 for 25 in 2.5 overs) also did his job well to restrict Mumbai to 222 for five.
Chasing a mammoth target, MI openers Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton gave the hosts a good start. They reached 56 without loss in five overs. Too many interruptions prolonged the game, as the first and second innings each took almost 2 hours.
Rohit received treatment for his hamstring after five overs and continued only to play one more ball and retired hurt on 19 in 12 balls to bring Suryakumar Yadav to the crease. Rohit never returned. Rasikh gave just 15 runs in his first two overs to limit MI to 62/0 in the powerplays.
Suyash struck twice in his first over to remove dangerous-looking Ryan Rickelton for 37 in 22 balls and Tilak Varma (1). MI were 99/2 at the halfway mark, requiring over 14 runs per over with Suryakumar and Hardik trying to forge a partnership. Suryakumar (33) fell to his trademark shot towards backward square leg off Krunal Pandya and Hardik (40), who was struggling at the crease with injury, completely miscued a big shot off Jacob Duffy. Rasikh later wobbled out in his third over due to injury. Sherfine Rutherford tried his bit with a 31-ball 71 with nine sixes, but he was left with too much to get. It was Mumbai’s third consecutive loss.
Earlier, Salt smashed six boundaries and as many sixes to share 120 runs first wicket stand in 65 balls with Kohli. Patidar wasted no time and reached 44 in just 11 balls, in sight of the fastest fifty in IPL with one more biggie. But he eventually reached there in 17 balls with a streaky boundary of Mitchell Santner.
RCB were staring at a score in excess of 250 at 183 for one in 14 overs until MI skipper Hardik Pandya (1 for 39) bowled a tight 15th over and dismissed Kohli after he brought up his fifty earlier in 37 balls, but holed out to Suryakumar at Long On. After a brisk start, Kohli scored the last 30 runs in 27 balls, but Patidar was the aggressor in the 65-run partnership in 23 balls for the second wicket.
Patidar also holed out in the next over, bowled by Santner. Jasprit Bumrah made it three good overs in a row for the hosts, but Pandya was wayward in the 18th over and got punished by David. Bumrah too received some stick in the penultimate over as he went wicketless for the fourth consecutive match. David then finished in style with a six off Trent Boult.
