Published: May 12, 2016, 12:18 AM (IST)
Edited: May 12, 2016, 05:01 AM (IST)
Mumbai Indians once again created an upset by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 6 wickets in the 41st game of the Indian Premier League at Bengaluru on Wednesday. Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler sealed the game for their side with their cameos and helped them to earn two priceless points and climb to the fourth position in the points table with 12 points in their basket. READ MORE: What happened when KL Rahul asked, “Baby, grab my bag”
Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl first on a wicket which was deceiving and had a reputation fro assisting the batsmen. MI bowlers did commendable job with the ball in chipping the key wicket of Virat Kohli with the new ball and put RCB on the back foot. Moments later, Chris Gayle was too dismissed while trying to play a big shot and RCB were now in all sorts of trouble. READ MORE: IPL 2016, Match 41, Pick of the tweets: Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians at Bengaluru
MI further got the key wicket of AB de Villiers and ensured they weren’t chasing a very big total as the big-hitter were back in the pavilion. Shane Watson looked good but was run out by a direct hit from Rohit Sharma. KL Rahul played a determined knock an unbeaten 68 from 53 deliveries and gave his bowlers a fighting chance. Sachin Baby too chipped in with some crucial 25 runs from 13 deliveries as RCB had 151 runs on the board to defend.
MI looked cautious in their approach but lost Parthiv Patel in the second over and the pace of the game was reduced. RCB bowlers were tidy with the new ball as they didn’t provide any room for errors to the MI batsmen. Rohit Sharma after a good start floundered at 25 but Ambati Rayudu continued to rotate the strike and kept the scoreboard ticking. At one position the game was evenly poised and needed some kind of impetus from MI to tighten their claws.
Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler sealed the game for MI with their cameos and ensured a sound victory for their side. Pollard scored a much needed 35 whereas Buttler fired a scintillating 29 to carry their side over the line. Both remained unbeaten and won the game by six wickets for MI. Yuzvendra Chahal and Srinath Aravind bowled magnificently and kept the batsmen under check with their guile but lacked support from other bowlers.
Turning Point: The game was evenly poised at the end of 16th over, where MI needed 44 off 24 deliveries but the 17th and 18 th over conceded 34 runs which tilted the balance completely in the favour of batting team. Both Pollard and Buttler went berserk and punished the RCB bowlers to reap two big overs.
Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 151 for 4 in 20 overs [KL Rahul 68*(53), Sachin Baby 25*(13); Tim Southee 4-0-27-1, Krunal Pandya 4-0-15-1] lost to Mumbai Indians 153 for 4 in 18.4 overs [Ambati Rayudu 44(47), Kieron Pollard 35(19); Varun Aaron 3.4-0-37-2, Yuzvendra Chahal 4-0-16-1] by 6 wickets.
