It was a memorable night at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur on Sunday, May 10, as the Indian Premier League played out one of its first real low-scoring thrillers of the season. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who hit his first IPL six in 10 years, proved to be a hero for the defending champions as they needed him most, performing well with both bat and ball.

RCB had lagged behind in the playoff race this season after losing two consecutive games against Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans. In dire need of breaking that sequence, RCB found a savior in Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who took three wickets for them in the powerplay.

IPLRCB vs MI: highlighted | Achievement:

An exceptional opening spell helped RCB restrict Mumbai Indians to 28/3 at the end of three overs. He later made a comeback in the death overs to dismiss Tilak Verma, Mumbai’s best batsman that night, when he looked set to provide a big finish for MI in the first innings of the match.

Bhuvneshwar might have thought that his four-over quick spell, where he recorded figures of 4/24, was enough to win the game for RCB. However, the seam bowler found himself in trouble once again, this time in 19.4 overs, with RCB needing 11 runs to win off the last three balls.

Hearts pounding and doubt creeping in, Bhuvneshwar hit a wide yorker from Raj Angad Bawa. The ball caught the meat of the bat and bounced over the deep point fielder for his first IPL six in the last 10 years.

OG IPL fans will remember the time when Bhuvneshwar Kumar was known as a pinch hitter. In the 2016 season of the IPL, during SRH’s title-winning campaign, Bhuvneshwar also scored 43 runs at a strike-rate of 160.

But over the years, those capabilities had diminished. And perhaps no one would have believed on Sunday that Bhuvi could do something like this for the defending champions.

With the stage set for a thrill on the last ball after Bhuvneshwar’s six, RCB’s tail-enders ensured they did not spoil the game. Two runs were needed to win, but Bhuvneshwar and Rasikh Salam had the presence of mind to run hard between the wickets, hit a big dive and save the dying match for RCB.

MI keeper Ryan Rickelton, who ran madly up to the stumps and smashed the wickets, threw the ball away in frustration, knowing full well that it had not reached him in time.

It was a clear indictment of Mumbai Indians this season, where they found themselves trailing the competition due to small but costly mistakes throughout the campaign.

Krunal showed his inner Maxwell

The target was expected to be easily achieved after a good performance by the bowlers, but it turned out to be a nightmare for RCB, who lost their talisman Virat Kohli for a duck on the very first ball, his second in a row this season.

When Deepak Chahar created a ruckus in the powerplay and removed Devdutt Padikkal with a sensational delivery in the off-stump channel, alarm bells rang.

The pressure mounted on RCB, as it had in the last two matches, as Corbyn Bosch made the best of the surface up and down the field and troubled the RCB batsmen a lot. Many of those balls hit the batsmen, which shows how unfavorable Bosch’s spell had become.

This is where RCB got the aggressive Krunal Pandya. After the dismissal of Rajat Patidar, Krunal handled the RCB innings very carefully. He controlled Bosch’s aggressive spell and cut the ball loose in the ninth over of the match.

As others struggled around him, Krunal’s well-thought-out counter-attacks kept RCB in the game. Towards the end of his innings, Krunal was struggling with cramps and was jumping up and down after almost every ball.

But that didn’t stop him from really coming alive in the latter stages of his innings. More importantly, he played almost 50 balls on a surface where most batsmen were struggling and still managed to score 74 runs, once again playing a vital innings for RCB, as he did in their title-winning season last year.

The match changed in the 18th over, when Krunal was caught by Naman Dheer at midwicket while trying to hit a six off Allah Ghazanfar. The fielder bounded between his legs and threw the ball towards Tilak Verma near the boundary line. Tilak, perhaps thinking that Naman Dheer had crossed the boundary cushion, did not attempt a relay catch, which brought great relief to RCB.

Krunal took full advantage of that gift of life and hit Ghazanfar with two powerful blows on the next three balls. However, he was not successful in lasting till the end, as he lost his wicket while attempting to hit the third six of the over on the last ball of the same over.

When Tilak completed the high catch the RCB dugout sank, almost believing that the fate of the game was sealed. But see later, after a big relief, those two extra sixes probably won the match for RCB.

Evergreen Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was named Player of the Match for his special spell of 4/24 and the match-winning six that tilted the game in RCB’s favour. In an era where almost every batsman is desperate to hit a six, it was only fitting that a low-scoring thriller was decided by a man who had not hit a six for a decade.

Bhuvi’s series of deceptions, where he looked to mix his trademark outswing with a deceptive knuckle ball, helped RCB take control of the match very early in the contest.

Bhuvneshwar destroyed the MI team by taking the wickets of Ryan Rickelton, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav in the powerplay. Later, he returned to clean bowl the aggressive Tilak Verma as well.

After that four-wicket spell, Bhuvneshwar Kumar now holds the record for most wickets in IPL 2026 after 11 matches. With 21 wickets to his name, one wonders why this player cannot be given a farewell T20I for India. Bhuvi has not played for the national team for almost four years, and it would perhaps be a fitting farewell for one of the special servants of Indian cricket.

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