Five-time champion Mumbai Indians is out of IPL 2026. MI’s remaining hopes were dashed after a narrow defeat at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore in Raipur on Sunday (May 10). MI, batting first after losing the toss, scored 166 runs at the loss of 7 wickets. Runs seemed to be low on the board but Deepak Chahar and Corbin Bosch kept MI in the contest by taking wickets at regular intervals. Then Afghan spinner M Ghazanfar made the match exciting by taking the wicket of RCB’s troubleshooter Krunal Pandya (73 in 46 balls) on the last ball of the 18th over.
Now RCB had to score 18 runs in the last 2 overs and Romario Shepherd was at the crease. Jasprit Bumrah, who came in the 19th over, allowed Shepherd and Rasikh Salam Dar to score only 3 runs, due to which MI started getting the smell of victory, then Suryakumar Yadav, who was commanding the team in the absence of Hardik Pandya, made a big blunder. This one mistake of Surya ruined MI and ultimately the team was eliminated from IPL 2026.
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What mistake did Surya make against RCB?
Defending champion RCB needed 15 runs in the last 6 balls to win. She had lost the last two matches and the pressure on her was clearly visible but a decision by Surya made her task easier. Actually, Surya gave the responsibility of bowling the last over not to Ghazanfar but to young all-rounder Raj Angad Bawa. Ghazanfar had one over left but Surya trusted Bava. It was not easy for medium pacer Raj Angad Bawa, who was playing only his second match of this season, to bowl this over under pressure.
Raj Angad Bawa started the last over with a wide and a no-ball. He was lucky that Shepherd could not make a big shot on the free-hit. A single came on the first legal ball of the over. Bava also tried a wide yorker against Rasikh Salam Dar, which went past the tram-line and past the keeper. Meanwhile Rasikh and Shepherd stole a run. The umpire said that this ball was wide. That means Bawa had spent 5 runs in 1 ball.
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Raj Angad Bawa hits a six at the last moment
Bava bowled a dot on the second ball and then took the wicket of Shepherd on the third ball. Now the match seemed to be going out of the reach of RCB, when Bawa bowled a wide ball in an attempt to bowl a bouncer against the new batsman Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He then attempted a wide yorker, which Bhuvneshwar sent over cover for a six. From here RCB needed only 3 runs in 2 balls to win. Bhuvneshwar took a single on the fifth ball of the over. After this, Bawa misfielded in the follow-through on the last ball, due to which RCB won this exciting match. Many cricket experts believed that if Surya had handed the ball to Ghazanfar, the result of the match could have been different.
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