IPL 2020 | Was nice for the side to get rid of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli early, states Trent Boult

Royal Challengers Bangalore got off to a brilliant start with a 71-run opening stand, but after Josh Philippe got dismissed by Rahul Chahar, Virat Kohli played couldn’t quite continue the momentum of the innings and got out scoring 14-ball 9. After that AB de Villiers too couldn’t get going before he was dismissed by Kieron Pollard, causing a collapse in the innings, from which RCB could never recover, giving a target of 165 to Mumbai. Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers for Mumbai, picking 3 wickets for 14 runs. 

In reply, riding on the brilliant unbeaten 43-ball 79 of Suryakumar Yadav, Mumbai chased the target easily, winning the match by 5 wickets. Trent Boult stated that the early wicket of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli turned the match in Mumbai's favour and helped them win in the end. 

“Good win, nice to get across the line. We did well with the ball, got them down to an achievable score, and then it was nicely followed up, obviously set-up by Surya. It was nice to get rid of AB and Virat, they were the big wickets that needed to be taken, that helped us in the end, made us feel less daunting. It was still a pretty good score, but I think we kept them down well,” Boult said in the post-match interview. 

With this win, Mumbai became the first team to all but qualify for the playoffs this season, maintaining their hold on the top position with 16 points in 12 matches. Boult insisted that the whole squad is feeling good and is ready to take on the playoffs, which from here is just a mere formality.

“It's all to play for now, we're heading towards the exciting part of the tournament. The squad is feeling good, I'm feeling good, big games coming up, but that's why we're here,” he said.