Royal Challengers Bangalore started off their IPL 2023 season with a win over Mumbai Indians by 8 wickets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Sunday. It was a convincing win for RCB who first invited MI to bat first before tighetening the screws on them by taking 3 wickets inside the powerplay. Even though Tilak Varma's outstanding innings worth 84 helped Mumbai make a comeback of sorts as the Blue and Gold Brigade scored 171/7 in their 20 overs. The Bangalore openers though made an easy work of the run chase with both Virat Kohli (82*) and Faf du Plessis (73) scoring half-centuries. In the end, Bangalore chased down the total with 22 balls to spare, bringing up an 8-wicket victory.

Yet another home team won in the tournament after an aberration in the first match of the double header on Sunday between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Rajasthan Royals in which the inaugural champions handed a 72-run loss to the Orange Army at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad to reach the top of the table.

Talking about the RCB vs MI contest, Bangalore bowlers clearly had a better day on the pitch and set up the win even as one would suggest that their openers did the job for them. Karn Sharma was the pick of the bowlers for Bangalore with the leg-spinner scalping 2 for 32. Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Akash Deep, Harshal Patel and Michael Bracewell picked a wicket each.

For MI, once the Bangalore openers got set, they looked clueless on a surface which appeared to be a batter's paradise against two men on top of their game. Only Arshad Khan and Cameron Green among the MI bowlers could get a breakthrough as they got the wickets of Du Plessis and Dinesh Karthik respectively but Piyush Chawla was the most economical of the lot with the experienced leggie conceding just 26 runs from his 4 overs.

Bangalore's win has further extended MI's wait for a win in their season opener as the five-time champions last won their first match of the campaign back in 2012.