By Vadiraj Kanakagiri

After a couple of defeats in the last two games, the dark clouds of last year's five defeats in a row were hanging over the team. But Virat Kohli and his men managed to turn the tide and were all over Mumbai's iffy batting lineup. After being put in to bat, RCB lost Padikkal courtesy of Bumrah's mastery with the ball. Skipper Kohli and young wiki KS Bharat took on MI's bowlers and added 68 quick runs for the second wicket. After Bharat fell in pursuit of quick runs, in came the hero of the game Glenn Maxwell.

Maxwell opened his armory and brought out all his weapons of wrath to dismantle the Mumbai bowling lineup. He brought the opposition to their knees with the range and kind of shots he played, posing a big headache for Rohit about his field placements. The normal sweep, the paddle sweep, the ramp, reverse sweep, switch hit, reverse flick, and he played many other shots which the pundits were still searching for names to describe. Even though he got out on just 56, the impact of such innings would put a massive dent in the opposition's bowlers' confidence. With the score hovering around 120 after 15, Virat was hoping for a big finish from his power hitters. But just like the previous game, AB disappointed again, and the middle order crumbled. RCB could only manage nine runs off the final two overs but still managed to post 165 thanks to Maxi's heroics and half-ton from the skipper.

Rohit and de kock started off well yet again and provided a 50 run stand. But their real problem is in the middle order and they couldn't hide it for long. Once the power play was done and Chahal was introduced into the attack, the tentativeness that had creeped into Mumbai's batters in recent times started to show. Sensing this, Kohli brought on Glenn Maxwell into the attack and tied down the defending champions from both ends. Chahal get rid off de kock, whereas Maxwell induced a miss-hit from Rohit to be caught at long-on.

Once the set pair was gone, the off-colour, out of form Ishan Kishan and Surya Kumar Yadav seemed like they were down a level. The confidence and fearlessness that paved the way for them to don the Indian jersey, was nowhere to be seen. Chahal kept foxing both the batters and Maxi tied them down with his tight lines. Kishan was deceived by Chahal and was caught at a backward point trying to break free. Sky guided one straight to short third off Siraj. The underperforming Krunal Pandya was cleaned up by Maxwell to end his misery.

Coming into the bowl the seventeenth over, Harshal Patel crushed all the hopes of the Mumbai team, if there were any, deep into the Earth's farthest layer by picking up a hat-trick. First, he outfoxed Hardik with a leg cutter, then cleaned up Pollard with an off cutter and bowled it full and straight to Rahul Chahar and trapped him in front to complete his hat-trick.

Harshal delivered a perfect slower one for the last wicket, full and targeted at the stumps, dipping right at the last moment under Milne's bat and onto his shoes. Umpire wasted no time in lifting his finger up and there was no one catching Harshal who set off for a celebratory run. To be fair to Milne, the delivery was so great, it could've got any top batter out.

With this loss, Mumbai find themselves reeling at the seventh position in the points table. Even after having the history of making the impossible possible with their comebacks, this one looks too far -fetched, even for Mumbai Indians.