By Jamie Alter
The trend of low-scoring matches continued as the IPL bandwagon moved to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Having opted to field, Mumbai Indians did a sterling job of keeping Royal Challengers Bangalore to 140 for four.
Published: Apr 12, 2011, 09:39 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 12, 2011, 09:39 PM (IST)
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By Jamie Alter
Bengaluru: April 12, 2011
The trend of low-scoring matches continued as the IPL bandwagon moved to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Having opted to field, Mumbai Indians did a sterling job of keeping Royal Challengers Bangalore to 140 for four. Lasith Malinga struck with his first ball, and RCB weren’t allowed to dominate apart from a 91-run stand between AB de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan, who batted through the innings for 57 off 51 balls.
Malinga’s first ball was another excellent yorker which did for Mayank Agarwal, after which RCB were on the back foot for the better part of ten overs. Sachin Tendulkar swapped his bowlers regularly and the RCB batsmen weren’t allowed to settle. Virat Kohli was consumed by Kieron Pollard, who used a shortish delivery to extract a top edge, and with Dilshan decidedly off-key, the run rate hovered around the four-and-half mark until de Villiers injected some oomph going into the halfway point.
Mumbai’s spinners, Ali Murtaza and Harbhajan Singh, operated largely with a flat middle-stump line, and only when they occasionally strayed too far down the pads were Dilshan and de Villiers able to play forceful shots. Boundaries were hard to come by, but de Villiers’ busy approach at the crease ensured he never stagnated, unlike Dilshan. Whereas Dilshan scored the majority of his runs on the off side, preferring to move back in his crease, de Villiers was able to pinch singles all over the place.
It wasn’t until the 14th over, bowled by Pollard, that the pair began to open up. De Villiers unfurled his trademark pick-up shots over the leg side and Dilshan smacked Harbhajan through extra cover and flicked Pollard for six over fine leg. Just when it seemed the pair could do real damage, de Villiers fell to Pollard. Immediately Tendulkar turned to Malinga, who cleaned up Asad Pathan.
Dilshan never did explode, though he did smack Malinga for six in the final over which cost 15, and Saurabh Tiwary’s 10-ball 16 helped get the total to 140. Dilshan was confident that was enough on a wicktet he termed as “difficult to bat on”, but RCB will have to go one better than MI to clinch victory against a very strong batting side.
Brief Scores: RCB 140 for 4 in 20 overs (Tillakaratne Dilshan 57*, AB de Villiers 38; Lasith Malinga 2 for 32, Kieron Pollard 2 for 25) v MI.
(Jamie Alter is a freelance cricket writer, having worked at ESPNcricinfo and All Sports Magazine. His first book, The History of World Cup Cricket, is out now. His twitter feed is @jamie_alter)
Pictures © AFP
