Published: Apr 19, 2015, 11:42 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 20, 2015, 02:04 AM (IST)
Mumbai Indians (MI) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 18 runs in Match 16 of eight edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 at Bangalore. Mumbai posted a big total on the board and Harbhajan Singh’s three demolished any hopes RCB had of chasing down the big total.
The chase had an interesting start when Chris Gayle hit Mitchell McClenaghan, the IPL debutant straight to Lendl Simmons but Simmons dropped him. He was yet to get off the mark. He also played out a maiden to Lasith Malinga. That prompted Kieron Pollard to have a few words with him. The umpire spotted that and had a word with him. What Pollard did in response was a bit too cheeky as he came out with a tape on his mouth. Gayle was dropped by Malinga as well but Harbhajan returned to dismiss Gayle for a painstaking 10 in 24 balls. Read: Kieron Pollard shuts himself up during the chase against RCB in Match 16 of IPL 2015
When Dinesh Karthik came out to bat at No. 4 ahead of Rilee Rossouw and AB de Villiers, it raised a lot of eyebrows. Virat Kohli too was under pressure; he has not scored that well in IPL 2015 and when McClenaghan had Kohli caught at cover, RCB sinked further. That though brought AB de Villiers to the crease who went going right from the word go. Malinga returned to dismiss Karthik to reduce RCB to 97 for four but nothing stopped de Villiers from taking 22 runs off the next five balls he faced from Malinga in that very over. UPDATES: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians
Harbhajan Singh playing his 100th IPL game for Mumbai Indians also took his 100th IPL wicket when he dismissed Rilee Rossouw for a first ball duck. de Villiers though played a blinder but the pressure was always too much for him and he got out for a 11-ball 41. A knock that had some superb hits to the fence. David Wiese backed up his impressive work with the ball earlier with a good cameo.
RCB were in the hunt thanks to a superb stand between Iqbal Abdulla and Wiese, they added 50 runs in just 23 balls to keep Mumbai on their toes. In the last two overs, Mumbai needed 35 runs to win but Malinga conceded just the seven runs. Rohit Sharma then handed the ball to Kieron Pollard to defend 28 runs in the final over of the game and he did that well to ensure Mumbai finally got off the mark in IPL 2015.
Earlier, Mumbai posted a par total on board, thanks to the fifties from Simmons and Unmukt Chand. Both of them made the wayward RCB bowlers pay as Mumbai set the platform up for a big score after a decent start. Simmons was quite superb, picking up right balls to go after. He returned to form with a hard hitting and quick fifty as the RCB bowlers were poor in their lines and lengths. He scored his fourth IPL fifty and brought it up in just 36 balls. Chand carried on once Simmons left and scored his maiden IPL fifty. Rohit Sharma chipped in with a quick 42 before getting dismissed by chipping one back to David Wiese. SCORECARD: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians
Wiese ended up with four for 33 as not many RCB bowlers executed their plans well. Yuzvendra Chahal took two for 28 in his spell. Everyone else was hit all over the park as the RCB bowlers had a tough day in the office. They will be eagerly waiting for Mitchell Starc to return. Their batting again failed today and they must know, they need to get things right before it is too late for them.
RCB had won the toss and put Mumbai in. Both teams made wholesale changes. The most notable one was of Corey Anderson missing out for Mitchell McClenaghan. Mumbai making four changes was easy to comprehend since they had lost four games in four matches but RCB making so many of them was surprising given they have just played a couple of games so far in the tournament Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015: Complete coverage
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 209 for 7 in 20 overs (Lendl Simmons 59, Unmukt Chand 58; David Wiese 4 for 33, Yuzvendra Chahal 2 for 28) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 191 for 7 in 20 overs ( AB de Villiers 41, David Wiese 47*; Harbhajan Singh 3 for 27) by 18 runs.
Man of the Match: Harbhajan Singh
(Nikhil Popat is a cricket lover and a PotterHead. He can be followed on Twitter @CricCrazyNIKS)
