IPL-08 : AB ,Kohli Steered RCB To 39 Run Victory Over MII In Crucial Match
10 May, Mumbai
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beat Mumbai Indians (MI) by 39 runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Wankhede Stadium , Mumbai on Sunday.
AB de Villiers was the Man of the Match .
Batting first, A.B. de Villiers smashed a brilliant hundred and remained unbeaten on 133 off 59 balls, striking 19 fours and four sixes, followed by skipper Virat Kohli’s 82 off 50 balls which helped team post 235/1.
In reply, Mumbai could only score 196/7 in 20 overs.
Despite Kieron pollard and Lendl Simmons essaying fine knocks , MI slumped towars a defeat. In particular , Pollard landed crunching blows to give MI a glimmer of hope of overhauling the massive target. However , once Sreenath Arvind snared Pollard’s wicket, it was all but over for the hosts.
The home side got off to a worst possible start losing opener Parthiv Patel (19) in the fourth over.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (15) after striking one boundary and a six failed to read a slower ball by Harshal Patel, thus finishing in the grip of Mandeep Singh at long on.
But wickets did not bother opener Simmons and Pollard as the West Indies pair went all out at the bowlers.
After smashing six fours and two sixes, Pollard got a top edge from his bat which was gleefully accepted by Mitchell Starc.
Hardik Pandya (8), Ambati Rayudu (14), Harbhajan Singh (3) Jagadeesha Suchith (4) all fell soon after.
Arvind and Mitchell Starc bagged one wickets each while Harshal Patel , and Yuzvendra Chahal both picked up two wickets each .
Earlier Both De Villiers (133, 59b, 19×4, 4×6) and skipper Kohli (82, 50b, 6×4, 4×6) hammered Mumbai bowlers all over the park.
The batting pair piled up an unbeaten 215-run partnership for the second wicket, which is also the highest partnership for all wickets in IPL history.
Opting to bat first, RCB got 14 runs off the first two overs, but what followed in the third over was some real drama on the field.
Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma dropped Chris Gayle on the fourth ball off Mitchell McClenaghan and Harbhajan Singh spilled Virat Kohli’s catch in first slip off the next ball. Gayle and Kohli were 12 and 8, respectively, when the catches were dropped.
But Gayle (13 off 12) didn’t hurt them much as Lasith Malinga in the very next over got rid of the Jamaican left-hander.
Gayle looked to slap the slower off-cutter well outside off and got another thick edge to the fine leg and fielder Lendl Simmons moved to his left and grabbed the ball with both hands. At that point of time, RCB were 20/1 in 3.1 overs.
With the dismissal of Gayle, came in another swashbuckling batsman de Villers. The South African didn’t take much time to settle down as he unleashed his skillful shots soon after along with Kohli.
De Villiers hit the ball mercilessly, bringing up his 50 in just 29 deliveries. He went on hitting, sweeping, slogging the ball to bring up his hundred in only 47 balls.
He was well supported at the other end by Kohli who too struck it with ease scoring his half-century in 39 balls.
This was the sixth consecutive IPL season where Kohli has scored 300+ runs also bringing up his 3,000-plus runs in IPL.