IPL 2026 – MI vs RCB Phil Salt assault completes the batting set for RCB before home stretch

Next ball, Santner overcompensated and went on the fuller side and Salt pounced on it with such ferocity that the ball sailed over the long-on boundary and into the second tier. This time, Kohli went across and punched Salt’s glove in celebration.

The third one, again short, was sent the ball sailing into the stands courtesy Salt’s brute power. Three sixes in a row.

The MI fielders’ shoulders had started to drop and the raised eyebrows of captain Hardik Pandya were visible from a distance. But Salt was not done. The fourth was given air, and was pitched outside off, and Salt mowed it down with a slog sweep for four. Nothing came off the last two, but Salt had made it a 22-run over.

“Some of these grounds aren’t the most bowler-friendly, so you have to keep the mentality that you will keep going at the opposition, and not forget your assets as a player”

Phil Salt

The real impact of that assault was that Jasprit Bumrah, who had bowled the third over for just ten runs, had to bowl the sixth too.

Even though Salt was carrying the RCB innings almost on his own, the Wankhede crowd belted out chants of “Aarceebee, Aarceebee” and “Koh-lee, Koh-lee” even though the star batter looked far from his best. But that was hardly going to affect Salt.

RCB were 65 for 0 with one powerplay over to go, and MI were so desperate that Hardik gave a second over to Bumrah in the powerplay. Bumrah conceded just six, and Santner pulled things back with four runs in the seventh, but Hardik then turned to legspinner Mayank Markande, ahead of Shardul Thakur.

By now, Salt had faced 24 balls and had his eye in firmly, ominously for MI. If it was all muscle and flashy batswing in Santner’s first over, it was timing and the ability to find gaps against Markande in his first over. The hot streak of 4, 4, 4 was completed with a disdainful six to the leg side off another short delivery.

Kohli was scratchy, going at just over 130 at the other end, so Salt’s knock was all the more crucial on a flat pitch where runs were going to flow in the chase too, especially with dew expected when RCB were going to bowl. It was the Wankhede anyway.

“Some of these grounds aren’t the most bowler-friendly, so you have to keep the mentality that you will keep going at the opposition,” Salt said on the broadcast after being named the Player of the Match. “And not forget your assets as a player, it’s about being a match-winner, isn’t it? I know I can’t get runs every game, nobody can.”