Ashish Nehra signals to Virat Kohli to let Pawan Negi bowl. | Photo Credit: Twitter

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered their seventh defeat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the hands of Mumbai Indians (MI) on Monday. RCB had posted a below-par total of 171 runs at a batting-friendly pitch at the Wankhede Stadium. They had AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali to thank for getting them to that total before giving a tough fight to MI with their disciplined bowling performance in the middle overs.

It came down to the last two overs where MI needed 22 runs with Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard on the crease. RCB captain Virat Kohli chose to give the ball to left-arm spinner Pawan Negi for the penultimate over. But the move backfired as Hardik took just six balls to get to the target as he smashed Negi for two boundaries and two sixes.

Virat has been facing criticism for his captaincy choices in the ongoing IPL and the result against Mumbai further added to his misery. But he is not the sole person to blame for the decision to bowl Negi against powerful hitters like Pollard and Hardik. RCB’s bowling coach Ashish Nehra signalled from the dugout to bowl the Negi in the 19th over when Kohli was going for Navdeep Saini. Nehra’s decision came back to haunt him big time as Hardik won the match for his team in that over only. Several fans had a field day on Twitter as they landed numerous jabs on Nehra for his decision.

Here are some of the reactions-

Ashish Nehra is that teacher who can make State Topper to fail Unit Test Exam

Dear @imVkohli#MIvRCB — Vishnu Sah (@Vishnu_Sah_) April 15, 2019

pic.twitter.com/N5gqNF9Zve

RCB fans waiting for Ashish Nehra #RCBVSMI — Vikram Desai (@mnoptre) April 15, 2019

This match is loss only because of Ashish Nehra — PurushottamShetty (@Purusho48277290) April 15, 2019

Ashish Nehra to Virat Kohli!

Asking Negi to bowl instead of Saini and that too when Hardik was batting.. #MIvRCB pic.twitter.com/Kzp5p7EbD1 — Chandler Stark Kings (@SarcasmChamp) April 15, 2019

Who knows Ashish Nehra had hardik pandya as captain in his dream11 #MIvRCB — BATHINI RAJASEKHAR REDDY (@RAJA_enigmatic) April 16, 2019

RCB relied on de Villiers’ 51-ball 75 and Moeen Ali's 50 off 32 balls to put up a total of 171. MI got off to a flyer as Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock quickly added a 50-run partnership. After Moeen removed both, it looked like RCB would get their second victory of the season. But Hardik had different plans as struck a match-winning 37 (16 balls) to win the match for his side. With this win, MI climbed to the third spot in the IPL 2019 points table with RCB rooted at the bottom.