Bengaluru (IANS) Mumbai Indians beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here yesterday.
Mumbai Indians chased down the target of 172 with two balls to spare after Ambati Rayudu remained unbeaten on 81 and Kieron Pollard struck 52 not out.
Chasing 172 to win, Mumbai were off to a disastrous start as as Zaheer Khan dismissed Sachin Tendulkar for a duck in the first over. In the second over, Gibbs was sent back following a brilliant piece of fielding by K.P. Appanna with scoreboard reading 4 for 2. Rohit was then dismissed for five in the fourth over and Mumbai were tottering at 19 for 3.
Wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik showed early signs of aggression, but Muttiah Muralitharan had him caught at the fine-leg boundary for 16. Harshal Patel gave Mumbai their fifth blow in the form of Dwayne Smith just after the visitors crossed the 50-mark.
Rayudu and Pollard started constructing a fighting partnership and revived hopes of a Mumbai victory. The duo went berserk in the middle and started hitting the bowlers all around the park. Mumbai needed 57 for a win from the last four over. Zaheer went for 16 in the 17th over as the Mumbai duo started to up the ante.
In the next over of Vinay Kumar, Rayudu smashed two sixes and a boundary to turn the equation in favour of Mumbai.
The duo hit nine runs in the penultimate over off Zaheer, leaving Mumbai to score 14 in last over. Pollard then smashed Gayle for a six and two fours to seal the match for Mumbai.
Earlier, Mayank Agarwal's 64 off 30 balls powered the Royal Challengers Bangalore to 171 for 6. Rain delayed the start of play by 50 minutes and left the pitch a touch sluggish, but Agarwal rose to the occasion.
Put into to bat, Bangalore's hopes of a good start were jolted when Chris Gayle was bowled by Munaf Patel in the third over. Virat Kohli soon followed as he was run out. At that stage, Bangalore were 11 for 2. Saurabh Tiwary helped Bangalore recover from a poor start before being dismissed for 21.
The hosts were in deep trouble at 47 for 3 by the seventh over. Dilshan and AB de Villiers had a brief partnership until the South African was dismissed by Pollard in the 12th over with the scoreboard reading 87 for 4. Agarwal and Dilshan shared a crucial stand of 46 which ended when R.P. Singh bowled Dilshan for 47 in the 18th over.
Agarwal then took Malinga to the cleaners, collecting 13 runs in the penultimate over. He then bashed Munaf Patel in the 20th over. Agarwal helped RCB pick up 24 runs in the last over.
scoreboard
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Chris Gayle b Patel 6
Tillakaratne Dilshan b Singh 47
Virat Kohli run out (Gibbs) 3
S.Tiwary hit wicket b Harbhajan Singh 21
AB de Villiers c Malinga b Pollard 14
Mayank Agarwal not out 64
R Vinay Kumar run out (Smith/Karthik) 1
Zaheer Khan not out 1
Extras: (lb 2, w 9, nb 3) 14
Total: (for six wickets in 20 overs) 171
Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Gayle, 2.2 overs), 2-11 (Kohli, 2.4), 3-47 (Tiwary, 6.3), 4-87 (de Villiers, 11.3), 5-133 (Dilshan, 17.3), 6-134 (Vinay Kumar, 17.5)
Bowling:
Munaf Patel 4-0-54-1
RP Singh 4-0-23-1
Lasith Malinga 4-0-29-0
Harbhajan Singh 3-0-33-1
Kieron Pollard 3-0-20-1
Dwayne Smith 2-0-10-0
Mumbai Indians
Herschelle Gibbs run out 2
Sachin Tendulkar c Kohli b Khan 0
Rohit Sharma c & b Vinay Kumar 5
Dinesh Karthik c Patel b Muralitharan 16
Ambati Rayudu not out 81
Dwayne Smith c Dilshan b Patel 6
Kieron Pollard not out 52
Extras (lb 4, w 7) 11
Total (for five wickets in 19.4 overs)173
Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Tendulkar, 0.5 overs), 2-4 (Gibbs, 1.2), 3-19 (Sharma, 3.4), 4-44 (Karthik, 7.5), 5-51 (Smith, 8.5)
Bowling:
Zaheer Khan 4-0-34-1
Vinay Kumar 4-0-36-1
Harshal Patel 4-0-25-1
Muttiah Muralitharan 4-0-16-1
KP Appanna 1-0-19-0
Chris Gayle 2.4-0-39-0
Toss: Mumbai Indians, who chose to field
Result: Mumbai Indians won by five wickets
