By Jamie Alter
Having opted to field, Mumbai Indians did a sterling job of keeping Royal Challengers Bangalore to 140 for four and then knocked off the runs with Sachin Tendulkar contributing a controlled 55 and Ambati Rayudu impressing with a breezy 63.
Published: Apr 12, 2011, 11:08 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 12, 2011, 11:08 PM (IST)
Mumbai rout Bangalore by 9 wickets
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 and then knocked off the runs with Sachin Tendulkar contributing a controlled 55 and Ambati Rayudu impressing with a breezy 63.
RCB lost their first wicket to Lasith Malinga first ball and then struggled to force the pace against Harbhajan Singh and Ali Murtaza on a sluggish track. 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 AB de Villiers injected some oomph going into the halfway point.
Murtaza and Harbhajan 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 wicket he termed as “difficult to bat on”, but RCB didn’t have enough firepower to clinch victory against a very strong batting side.
Davy Jacobs set the tone with a cameo 22 off 16 balls in which he dismantled Zaheer Khan’s left-arm pace superbly, tonking him for 20 runs in 11 balls. His dismissal, bowled by Dirk Nannes, was followed by a match-winning partnership between Tendulkar and Rayudu. Oddly Nannes was taken off after that maiden-wicket over, and MI cruised to victory.
Tendulkar controlled the chase brilliantly, working the bowlers around with ease and pouncing on the bad balls. Daniel Vettori was cut through cover, Abhimanyu Mithun driven straight, and Dilshan swept and slogged for boundaries. Rayudu’s approach wasn’t as fluent but he did manage to muscle nine boundaries in his innings. He didn’t waste time in going at the bowling and once he found his groove, Rayudu produced some pleasing strokes through the off side, the pick of which was a firm drive past extra cover off Mithun.
With Rayudu repeatedly hammering the ball through that region, it wasn’t long before he outscored Tendulkar and reached fifty first, off 41 balls. Tendulkar followed moments later, however, and with his robust partner sealed victory with nine balls to spare.
Brief Scores:MI 143 for 1 in 18.3 overs beat (Ambati Rayudu 63*, Sachin Tendulkar 55*; Dirk Nannes 1 for 1) RCB 140 for 4 in 20 overs (Tillakaratne Dilshan 57*, AB de Villiers 38; Lasith Malinga 2 for 32, Kieron Pollard 2 for 25).
Man of the Match: Sachin Tendulkar.
(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
