Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both left the field nursing injuries in an IPL contest that otherwise bristled with runs and very little breathing space. Royal Challengers Bengaluru defended 240 at the Wankhede on Sunday night, prevailing by 18, but the post-match chatter circled mostly around two sore legs.
The first alarm sounded four balls into the fifth over of Mumbai Indians’ chase. Rohit, on 19 from 13, set off for a single, pulled up, and called for treatment. Strapping wrapped around his right hamstring, he tried one more delivery but soon signalled that he was done for the evening. He did not return; MI, already wobbling, never fully recovered.
Kohli’s issue had cropped up earlier. Five balls into the tenth over of RCB’s innings, television cameras picked him up receiving attention on his left ankle. On commentary Simon Doull called it “an ankle injury”, and the phrase stuck. Kohli resumed, pushed to 50 off 38 before Hardik Pandya had him caught in the 15th, yet when Bengaluru took the field he stayed in the dug-out with ice and a furrowed brow.
Asked for an update afterwards, stand-in RCB skipper Rajat Patidar offered only mild reassurance. “I don’t know, but I feel he’s okay right now,” Patidar said, crediting Kohli’s half-century for giving the bowlers “something workable” on a belting surface.
RCB have now taken three wins from four and sit third. MI, after a solitary victory in their opener, have lost three on the bounce and are eighth.
Numbers aside, the frame of both sides’ campaigns may hinge on medical reports due early this week. A hamstring tweak can turn into a longer lay-off if handled poorly; the same is true for rolled ankles, especially for a player who relies as much on sharp singles as Kohli. For now, fans of India as well as the two franchises will exhale only when both men stride out unencumbered in the next round of fixtures.
