The Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur saw a night to remember 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 the hero for the defending champions when they needed him most, both with the bat and the ball.
RCB lost their breath in the playoffs this season, losing two matches against Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans. Desperately needing to break this streak, RCB found a savior in Bhuvneshwar Kumar who took three wickets for them in the power over.
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An exceptional opening spell helped RCB reduce Mumbai Indians to 28/3 at the end of three overs. He later returned at the death to dismiss Mumbai’s best batsman of the night, Tilak Varma, just as he looked set to deliver a big finish for MI in the first innings of the match.
Bhuvneshwar would have thought that his scorching four-wicket spell where he recorded figures of 4/24 was enough for RCB to win the game. However, the seam bowler found himself on the alert again, this time in 19.4 with RCB needing 11 runs to win off the last three balls.
Heart pounding and doubts creeping in, Bhuvneshwar slashed hard with the bat at a wide yorker from Raj Angad Bawa. The ball caught the meat of the bat and soared over the fielder in the deep field for his first IPL six in 10 years.
Fans of the OG IPL would remember the time when Bhuvneshwar Kumar was offered as a pinch hitter. In the 2016 IPL season, during SRH’s victorious campaign, Bhuvneshwar even scored 43 runs in a success rate of 160.
But over the years these abilities have diminished. And perhaps no one would have believed on Sunday that Bhuvi could pull something like that off the defending champions.
Gearing up for a final thriller after Bhuvneshwar’s six, the RCB tailenders made sure they didn’t let the game down. Needing two runs to win, Bhuvneshwar and Rasikh Salam had the presence of mind to run hard between the wickets, give a big bounce and save a dying match for RCB.
Running frantically towards the stumps and breaking the wickets, MI keeper Ryan Rickelton threw the ball away in frustration, knowing full well that he had not reached it in time.
It was a telling indictment of the season the Mumbai Indians have had, where they have often found themselves behind the competition due to small but costly mistakes throughout the campaign.
KRUNAL CHANNELS HIS INNER MAXWELL
What was expected to be an easy chase after a good performance by the bowlers turned out to be a nightmare for RCB who lost their talisman Virat Kohli to a first-ball duck, his second in a row this season.
Alarm bells were rung when Deepak Chahar ran riot in the overs and dropped Devdutt Padikkal with a sensational delivery in the channel outside the off-stump.
The pressure mounted on the RCB side, just like in the last two games, as Corbin Bosch made the most of the surface up and down and troubled the RCB batsmen immensely. Several of these deliveries drove into the bodies of the batsmen, underscoring just how hostile Bosch’s spell had become.
It was here that RCB found the defiant Krunal Pandya. Krunal, who moved up the order after Rajat Patidar’s dismissal, handled RCB’s innings with extreme caution. He controlled a raging spell from Bosch and was relieved only in the ninth over of the match.
While others struggled around him, Krunal’s calculated counter attack kept RCB in the game. By the end of his innings, Krunal was struggling with cramps and bouncing on almost every ball he faced.
But that didn’t stop him from really coming alive in the latter stages of his innings. More importantly, he played close to 50 balls on a surface where most batsmen struggled and still managed to get away with 74 runs, again playing a crucial innings for RCB as he did last season when they won the title.
The match turned in the 18th over when Krunal’s attempted six off Allah Ghazanfar was caught by Naman Dhir at midwicket. The fielder bounded between the legs and bowled the ball to Tilak Varma near the boundary line. Perhaps thinking that Naman Dhir had crossed the boundary cushions, Tilak did not attempt a relay catch and gave RCB a huge reprieve.
Krunal took full advantage of that lifeline and hit Ghazanfar with two lusty shots in the next three balls. However, he was unable to continue till the end as he lost his wicket on the last ball of the same over while trying to hit Ghazanfar for the third six of the over.
RCB’s toss sank when Tilak completed a lofty catch, almost believing that the fate of the game was sealed. But in hindsight, those two extra sixes after much delay may have ended up winning the match for RCB.
THE EVER GREEN BHUVNESHWAR KUMAR
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was named the man of the match for his special spell of 4/24 and a match-winning six that tilted the game in RCB’s favour. In an era where almost every batter is swinging for sixes, it was fitting that the low-scoring thriller was decided by a man who hadn’t hit a single in a decade.
Bhuvi’s string of deceptions, where he seemed to mix his signature coup with a deceptive knuckle ball, helped RCB take control of the match very early in the match.
Bhuvneshwar destroyed the MI side in the powerplay, picking up the wickets of Ryan Rickelton, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav. Later, he returned to the clean bowl of a raging Tilak Varma as well.
After this four-wicket spell, Bhuvneshwar Kumar now holds the record for most wickets after 11 games in IPL 2026. With 21 wickets to his name, one wonders why the player can’t get a farewell T20I for India. Bhuvi has not played for the national team for nearly four years and perhaps it would be a fitting farewell for one of Indian cricket’s special servants.
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Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
May 11, 2026 01:24 IST
