What happened the last time MI played RCB at the Wankhede Stadium before IPL 2025?

After a disastrous start to their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign, five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) will host the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the 20th match of the season. Their only win so far this season has come at the Wankhede Stadium, having lost all three away games.

Following their title triumph in 2020, MI have been nowhere close to their best. They have finished 10th in the points table twice in the last three years, and despite having a strong team, they have failed to be consistent.

Meanwhile, RCB are still without an IPL trophy, but their solid start to the 18th IPL season has ignited some hopes. They began the campaign with resounding victories over Kolkata Knight Riders and the Chennai Super Kings before suffering their first defeat of the season against the Gujarat Titans.

While MI have won 19 matches against RCB, the latter have come out triumphant on 14 occasions in 33 games between the two sides. When it comes to their record at the Wankhede Stadium, MI have won eight matches while RCB have beaten the hosts three times at the iconic stadium.

MI registered a dominant win when the two teams faced each other at the Wankhede last time in 2024

Despite finishing at the bottom of the points table in 2024, Mumbai Indians thrashed RCB in their previous meeting at the Wankhede Stadium. Little went in RCB’s favour as MI registered a convincing 7-wicket win with 27 deliveries to spare.

RCB lost Virat Kohli and Will Jacks early, reducing them to 23/2, after they were put in to bat first. The partnership between captain Faf du Plessis and Rajat Patidar steadied the ship for RCB. They batted sensibly to start with and then kept finding boundaries on a consistent basis. Both Faf and Patidar scored fifties and shared an 82-run stand, before the latter was dismissed with RCB at 105 in the 12th over.

The foundation was laid for the rest of the innings, but Glenn Maxwell's wicket pegged them back. It needed a blistering cameo from Dinesh Karthik to take them near the 200-run mark as they kept losing wickets at the other end.

Karthik remained unbeaten on 53 off 23 while Jasprit Bumrah was the wrecker-in-chief with the ball for MI. He was the stand-out bowler in every aspect of the innings, finishing with astounding figures of 5/21 in his 4-over spell. Shreyas Gopal, Geral Coetzee and Akash Madhwal chipped in with a wicket each.

The Bengaluru side posted a fighting total of 196, but it turned out to be an under-par score at the high-scoring Wankhede.

An exhilarating opening stand between Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma put MI in a commanding position within the powerplay. Kishan, in particular, was at his dominant best and didn't spare any of the RCB bowlers in the first six overs.

He blasted a 23-ball fifty while Rohit took his time at the other end, building his innings and playing the anchor role. Rohit found his attacking mojo after the powerplay. The opening duo built a 101-run stand by the 9th over when Kishan was dismissed, laying a solid foundation.

Suryakumar Kumar then came out all guns blazing and kept toying with the RCB bowlers. He never allowed the bowlers to get into a rhythm and went on to smash a 17-ball fifty. His knock was studded with five fours and four sixes.

Following his departure, it was the pair of Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma who shared an unbeaten 37-run stand to seal the deal for the Mumbai Indians. Hardik was at his imperious best, scoring a 6-ball 21 while Tilak remained unbeaten on 16 off 10 deliveries as MI chased the total in 15.3 overs.